The Edge Mirror's Edge Collaborative fan fiction
by Wray Burgess
Summary: Follow the cast of characters of the New November; merc's original team, now governed by runner/tracker isaac preston, takes place after M.E., please review, but remember, each character is written by a different person. bits of romance and fluff.


**.com**

**mirror's edge fanfiction/role playing community**

**Doubt and Faith**

It wasn't a dark and dingy place where she was being held. It was bright, clean and cool. In fact, there was even a table with food on it. Expensive food. And a mahogany chair.

Faith stood. Not willing to comply with any of this strange man's comforts.

"_Hi Faith._" He smiled. "_I don't believe we've met. But I do believe we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Douglas Forn the Third._" She didn't respond, and only kept a stern and serious face.

"_You see, I know you killed my friend Callahan. And now you think yourself some kind of hero. You think you can change what so many believe is keeping them safe?_" Douglas looked through the glass walls. It would of been a funhouse of mirrors else where, but here the five inch thick bullet-proof glass was Faith's prison. Able to look out at her city but not able to escape her prison.

"_I saw you trying to take a peek into my new headquarters. And I sent an employee of mine to fetch you. And for now.._" Douglas brought out his mobile phone, and pressed some buttons,"_...you sleep._"

The bright day dimmed for Faith as she smelled something strange, and she fell unconscious.

**A Day Out**

((Written with God_hund on Skype, if you couldn't guess))

Though Dion considered himself a part of the NN, he still chekked blacklists and bounties now and then. This day Dion found a bounty on a guy. He was apperantly a drug dealer, and he had a bounty on 1000. Though the bounty was very small Dion began to search about the guy. Where did he live? Did he have a work? where could he be found? Dion realised it would not be that hard a job. The guy was easy to trace. He was a lone target. He was an outlaw. He was nerby. Dion turned off the computer, and grapped his M200 sniper rifle from the table.

"Hey, where you goin'?" Burke asked Dion when he grabbed the gun. She sat up and stretched, she'd been sitting around all day.

"Just getting some cash." Dion said. Then he turned around, and hung the rifle on his bag.

"I'm about to go out too, I'm gonna gain thirty pounds sitting around here." Burke got up. "I won't follow you though, you seem to know what you're doing. I got something to find. As long as Isaac doesn't have anything more important for me to be doing."

"sure" Dion replied politely, then they left the AC tower. Dion walked towards the ally where he knew he would be able to find his target. Though Dion had learned how to run with the weapon on his bag, though not as good as the professional runners, but he wouldn't dream of running just before shooting if he could avoid. His blood flow would increase and his high pulse, and heavier breathing would make it harder to hit the target dead on. When he got near the alley he found a way to a tall building. He could not see the target from here, but he had a good overview of the area around the target. He found a good point to take the shot from. from the cornor for the roof he would be able to see the area where the target was supposed to be, but was still about 200 meters of street away from him.

Burke didn't move quickly, there was no need. She went behind a local grocery store, opened a huge green dumpster, and searched. It didn't take long to find a perfectly good, sealed cake. The only problem was it had been dumped ito the can, so the frosting was all over the inside of the plastic. "Bingo," Burke mumbled to herself and left the area.

From his new vantage poin Dion closely watched the people on the streets a few hundred meters away. The distance appeared to be longer than he first expected. He fast identified one who looked to be the target, but couldn't get him confirmed as the target. As Dion was getting close to decide to move to a closer position, the guy appearing to be the target did something unexpected. If Dion hadn't watched the area for so long, he wouldn't had realised what happened: A deal! Throught the scope Dion could see it clearly. A man with a black hat was talking with him, and after some time of chattering they had shaken hands. But in real the dealer was given some money, and man with the hat took a small bag wich was standing between them. It looked like it belonged to him, but it had stood there before he came.  
"Target verified" Dion fast began to mesure winds, angles, gravity, flight time. Then he pulled the trigger, and 0.43 seconds later the target got hit by a bullet in the neck. "a little low. im getting inacurate" Dion thought. He operated the bolt, and swung the rifle back on his back. then he left the area

James looked at the man just as he got killed. He could see from the way he felt where the shot came from. He didn't hear the shot. He knew only one person who could do that. Thoug the bullet whole came from the neck. Dion aimed for the head, and as far as James knew he was always dead acurate. It didn't matter anyways; a killers a killer, and a cop is a cop. He began to sprint towards the shooter. He looked for all signs of the killer: an open window, or even better a blown one. but no. "the roof" James thought. He knew Dion. They where good freinds. James was one of the guys who Dion could thank for bein alive. James was even the boy who gave Dion his name. James ran in a narrow ally. by jumping from a wall he could reach the firestairs. he quickly ran up the whole staircase. When he was on the top he just saw the back of a guy jumping down on the ohter side of the building. The guy had brown short hair, and a grey rifle on his back. James ran to the side of the roof where he saw the guy jump from. when he go to the edge he jumped down on the lower roof.

Dion heard someone land behind him. Without eve looking back he began to sprint. "Damn those Pursuit Cops!"

James folowed Dion, and quickly gained on him. "STOP" he shouted.

Dion recognized the voice. "James?" no it couldn't be. But why not? it seemed they kept running into each other. "What are you doing here? it was such an easy job."

James pulled the taser. He shot, but one of the darts hit the rifle, and fell off. Though the other dart hit Dion, and got attached to the cloth the shock could not be formed, as the two darts was never on at the same time.

Dion felt the taser hit his cloth. You wanna fight? Without slowing down Dion pulled the rifle from his back. He turned round a cornor, and tried to get the rifle face James, but he was to close, and grapped the end of the rifle and twisted it. Dion lost his grip in the rifle, but it fired a shot. The shot wasnt close to hit any of them, and the bullet just hit the edge of the roof they where standing on.

Burke happened to be walking by on her way back to the hideout when she heard the shot and noticed it hit the roof's edge. She looked at where it must have come from and saw Dion's dilemna. Sitting down the cake, she ran to help him.

Dion was useless in melee combat. he could run fair enough, and he was good with a rifle. He had also tried to learn to disarm CPFs, but James was Pursuit cop. He used melee combat, and like that wasn't enough he was an ex-NN runner. Dion even remembered helping him into the CPF. That was before Dion had chosen to join the New November. Dion couldn't get a single hit on James, who completely dominated the battle. Dion couldn't even run away. he just tried to dodge as many hits as possible.

Burke bowled into James, knocking him about three feet from Dion. She glared. "What do you think you're doing?" She faced James.

The hit came unprepared on James. he flew a meter, before he controlled the momentum, and used it to flip himself back on his legs. He turned around and saw who had hit him. "Burke?" Burke and James was not exactly friends, so he wasn't surprised she attacked him.

Dion stared shocked at James as he flew away, then quickly turned, and grabbed the rifle "Lets get away!"

"Agreed." Burke pointed at James, "Now, you aren't gonna follow us are you?" She was backing up slowly, deciding whether or not to pick up the cake.

James wasn't interested in a two versus one battle. He stared at Burke, then he turned around, and ran back to the base.

"Thank you." Burke smirked, "Come with me, Dion." She went back to where she'd come from, picked up the cake, and they head back to base. "I'm fairly proud of myself right now," She pointed out, speaking to Dion, who stayed silent.

**A Meeting**

((written with Isaac on skype))

The town had gathered around a single spot in the city. Apparently, something dramatic had just happened. Holly was simply scouting the city, which had almost become a daily routine for her lately. She took the elevator up to the rooftop so she could get a look without being surrounded by gawking citizens. They examined a man covered by a cloth. _Another murder_, Holly thought to herself, they seemed more common lately.

***

"DION!" Isaac yelled.  
"DIOOON! I HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO DO" Isaac yelled. It was futile, Dion had left the AC tower, rifle in hand.

"I've got to go get him... he needs to pick up some milk" said Isaac, aloud.  
"I guess I'll go follow him," said Isaac. he walked around the large computer station.  
wait, thought Isaac, there was a big gun here... did Dion take it...? he wondered, remembering giving everyone orders not to draw attention to themselves.  
"S**T," said Isaac,"I've got to get to him before he does something we'd regret"  
Isaac climbed out of the top of the AC tower. he ran fast, looking down. the more he ran, the more momentum he gained. he hadn't been out on the town in a while, so it felt good to be running again. he was getting faster. his breathing had become forced for the 1st time in a month. every step, every breath he counted. he knew every route in the city by heart. any mistake, any miscount is steps, and it was all over. he was getting closer to Dion's last known position.

Isaac ran alongside the roof near the 3rd st subway stop. he jumped in to the station through an open window and blended with the crowd. this was dangerous, but a quicker rout to Dion then, the roofs. He walked to the subway stop, and walked up to the tracks... without a second thought, he jumped onto the tracks. there was a maintenance exit about 400 meters ahead. Isaac sprinted.  
300 meters to go  
200 to go  
100... what's that noise  
50...oh, god. A TRAIN!  
the door was wide open, Isaac sped up, faster than he'd ever gone before and literally dove into the door. he was tense, but that close call made it worse. he was worried it was too late, he was tired, so he sat on the stairs and covered his ears, he hated loud noises. all his worry was for nothing, it was a train on the other side of the tracks. he regrouped himself and climbed the stairs into the alley. it was dark and humid. he looked at his feet and saw the lifeless carcass of a drug dealer.  
"i knew it!" he said, angrily"damn it Dion"

immediately, he heard a siren. he was terrified of police, and guns, and anything to do with confrontation. he backed up, and scaled 12 feet up the wall on his right side, flipping sideways onto the fire escape. he climbed up it quickly. he sat uptop and watch the police walk into the alley, and see the bloody shook his head and backed up to avoid being spotted

"Fleeing from a crime scene." Holly smirked as Isaac backed towards her.

"what" isaac said, with a jump. he was terrified, and automatically put his hands up.

"Don't think I didn't see you, and with an attitude like that you'll have a hard time convincing me otherwise. So what do you think you were doing? He's just a lowly drug dealer trying to make money."

"wait..." said isaac, still terrified "you think I KILLED him?"

"You're fleeing, I spoke, you turn around with your hands up. Could it be any less obvious?" Holly kept her confident smile.

"n-n-no," isaac studdered..."I'm... I'm just a train maintenance worker!" said isaac, remembering where he'd just stumbled out of. "I just found him here I swear... I was coming up for ssome fresh air" he said, with a faint smile.

"Don't say you swear. If you didn't do it, don't swear, or it means the opposite. Well, you're lucky I'm not the CPF or I'd have taken you in for arguing, you know how that goes. What are you doing up here? What would a maintenance worker being doing up here if he just wanted fresh air, especially after finding a dead body?" Holly decided to persist.

"I didn't want the CPF to think it was me" isaac said. he thought he had almost got her to believe him.

"Well, you should have run the other way. Let's move away from here before what I say is true." Holly walked past him and went ot the elevator.

"uuh, yeah," said isaac "elevator..." he laughed nervously. he almost NEVER used elevators and had forgotten how to use their 2 button design.

Holly shook her head and pressed the button. When the door closed, she remained silent.

"I'm Isaac Preston, by the way" said Isaac, less nervously. he trusted this mystery lady.

"I'm Holly Saunders." Holly replied, the elevator door opened and she lead him confidently across the building. The more confidently you acted, the more people believed you knew what you were doing. It was her best idea to get them away from the scene unsuspected.

"where are we going?" asked Isaac, more confidently.

"Away from the site. Nowhere in particular." Holly pointed out with a smile, "Just don't tell anyone."

"I sure won't" said isaac, practically clinging to holly

Holly looked at Isaac for a moment, noticing his lack of distance, then looked ahead again. "I think we're good now." She slowed her brisk pace and sighed, she wanted to bug him more about what he was doing at the site, but resisted. He already told her his 'job,' thought it wasn't believable, she wouldn't bug him about it. For a while she kept quiet. "You on lunch break right now? If so you should probably head back soon."

"what do you mean, lunchbre... I mean yes... lunchbreak. I'm on lunchbreak." said isaac, losing some confidence with the screw-up

Holly laughed. "I'll meet up with you again if you head back now, so you won't be late. I need to get home, I have work to do."

"wait, where?" isaac asked, excited

"Um," Holly thought for a moment. "Outside the New Eden Mall, at like... 9 in the morning?"

"Okay!" isaac said, and waved her goodbye, running full speed in the opposite direction of the subway. he stopped, and turned around and walked back to the subway. going EXACTLY as fast as the pedestrian in front of him.

**Part Two of A Meeting**

When isaac returned Dion looked up from the computer.  
"Hey Isaac. Where'd you come from?"

"You're murder"

"Tell me something I dont know. Im a bounty-hunter. See I got paid." Dion replied, and showed the screen. A transaction on 1000.

"Nice loot, you know" Isaac said laughingly "I AM you're tracker, so if you wouldn't mind giving me my cut" Isaac said, then giggled.

"What? you didn't give me this job." Dion relpied. He was also smiling all over his face. "But if you have a job for me to do that'd be nice"

"Well I do," replied Isaac, matter-of-factly. "Pick up some milk, and now some frosting for the cake... And some nice clothes that fit me"

"Ok. Sure. Wait why don't you buy your own clothes?"

"I'm tired, and I just got a date" Said isaac, seising the opportunity to brag to Dion "I will get them wrinkled! You know how I run: Fast and sloppy"

"A date? Congrats! Whats her name? Or is it a he?" Dion replied, laughing at the last part.

"I'm going to disregard that last statement," said Isaac, flatly."Her name is Holly. And I'm meeting her tomorrow at 9 A.M. at the New Eden Mall"

"Nice. Whell you know im not anything better at running than anyone here. In fact I guess im the slowest, and over all worst runner in your group. But: Milk and clothes? What clothes anyways?"

"I dunno, something nice, and... Well... No just milk. I'll go get these clothes drycleaned"

"OK milk it is," Dion said, and left the AC tower.

**At The Mall**

It was early. isaac left hte AC tower. he told no one where he was going. it was 8:30 in the morning. they knew.

Isaac ran through the brisk, morning air. he ran along the empty streets, fast as lightning; hoping to beat holly to the mall. why did she want to meet so early? what was her job? did she like him? all these things he wondered. he began counting his footsteps, his breaths, his heartbeats. he reached the intersection of 5th and Moore street and stopped, the cool air catching up to him.

Holly slowly made her way for the mall, she had half an hour, but she liked to be the first to a meeting. She arrived at 8:45 and sat on a planter just outside the front of the mall.

Isaac dove under a truck, slid onto a board stacked on a wall, used his momentum to dive the other way onto a forklift. he used a box and spring boarded onto the roof of the large entrance, about to dive into a planter box when he remembered: Holly didn't know he was a runner. Isaac jumped off of the roof entrance onto a maintenance gantry, and then onto an arch. from there he dropped down onto the ground, and walked through the entrance to the courtyard, where he approached the gates.

Holly spotted Isaac and went to meet him. "Hello again, Isaac. Shall we go in?" She smiled, having not noticed how he'd made his way to the mall.

"Sure!" replied isaac, as happy as a child in a candy store. "we might be the first ones."

Holly shook her head and laughed a bit. "The Mall opens at 7." She lead him in, keeping silent most of the time, a little worried Douglas might wonder where she was, she didn't speak before leaving this morning, but she also wasn't' given a job.

Isaac walked through the mall, enjoying the scenery. He hadn't been to the mall since it opened, but had navigated through it's maintenance catwalks and airducts many times before while it was still under construction.

"I'm guessing you don't work on the weekends," Holly decided to attempt a conversation. For some reason she didn't believe much in his railway construction job.

"uuh... Well sometimes but usually I just give my run- I mean workers jobs to do." Replied Isaac, nearly blowing his secret.

Holly smiled, "So you are the manager? That's cool." Realizing Isaac's story was coming to a conclusion, Holly quickly changed the subject, "So tell me more about yourself... Do you have any family here?"

"well no... My parents moved and then my dad died... My uncle still lives here though"

"So you live alone?" Holly lead him to the Taste of New Eden restaurant, realizing she didn't think to mention it before.

Isaac didn't know a good enough lie to answer the question with so he simply smiled and said "mmmh this food smells good," pretending not to hear Holly.

"Get what you want, but go easy on me," Holly said as they took a seat.

The waiter came up to them. "Can I get you two something to drink?"

Holly nodded, "regular coffee is fine." The waiter looked at Isaac.

"I'll have a triple tall 1 pump white mocha with extra whipped cream" said Isaac "and holly, I can pay for our food. Being a maintenance worker has it's rewards"

"If you insist." Holly knew maintenance workers were poor, but she didn't argue because he wasn't a maintenance worker. The waiter left, Holly remained silent.

"So what do you do for a living?" asked Isaac, trying to keep the conversation going.

"I work at a local enterprise. My part is classified." Holly made it sound more official so he'd assume it couldn't be talked about in public places, which was true.

"oh so... What do you want to talk about?" replied Isaac, unsure if he had just stepped into a mine field.

Holly thought for a moment, playing with a stray strand of brown hair. "What do you think of the city these days?" She stroked the piece of hair back into the rest of it and tied it all back before resting her forearms on the table.

"I really don't like it " replies Isaac, this was a very sensetive topic for him. "I don't like how the city just blames the runners for anything... Not that I care... I mean"

Holly smiled. "It could undergo some changes." The waiter returned and gave them their drinks.

"Can I get you something to eat?" The waiter pulled out a little notebook and a pen.

Holly shook her head. "I'll pass."

"are you sure?" replied Isaac "we can share something... I'm getting the wings"

"I'll steal your stuff if I feel the need." Holly laughed, the waiter wrote down Isaac's order and left.

Holly just smiled. "I won't." She took a few sips of coffee then remained silent.

Isaac shifted In his chair. He was unsure what to do so he just smiled.

The waiter returned with Isaac's order. "I'll be back to check on you if you want to order anything else." He left.

Holly shook her head, right now she was a little concerned, and eating was in her best interest. If Isaac was a runner, he definitely wasn't NCO, which leaves the NN. If that was true, her reason for spending so much time with him should be for information, not playing around, but she couldn't help it. "No, I'm okay. I don't mean to be rude, I just don't feel like eating right now."

"ok" Isaac responded, finishing the last of his 15 wings. For being so emaciated, he ate a lot. "ready? I can ask for the check"

"Alright." Holly finished her coffee, the waiter conveniently showed up.  
"Are you all finished here?" He asked.

"yeah" said Isaac "what do I owe you?"

The waiter handed him the check, "I'll check you out at the counter." The waiter waited for Isaac to follow him. Isaac walked to the counter and paid the man in cash

Holly followed Isaac, and when he was finished paying they left the restaurant. "Well, I think I just need coffee. I'm awake now." She laughed a little, "What else do yo want to do while we're here?"

"well, I really need some new shoes " said Isaac.

"Alright." Holly knew her way around the mall fairly well, though she hadn't been there often. It took them ten minutes to get to the shoe store. "Here we are." They went in.

Isaac looked down at his red, extra grip, special running shoes... Am I being too obvious? He wondered... Naaah. He walked into the running shoe isle and picked themost high tech specialized shoes he could find: the parkour line from kswiss.

"Aren't those a little too expensive for what they are?" Holly pointed out with a smile. "I mean, you could get some for a third the price for just as good."

Well my last pair were these same ones and there really comfy. Also I can wallsca-" isaac paused "I mean walk very far with these"

Holly rolled her eyes. "Ok, this is just getting ridiculous. If you must keep everything secret, do a good job at least."

"Who's keeping secrets?" Replied Isaac, he was jumpy. " I just like these shoes!"

"I do parkour as well." Holly pointed out. "But I'll talk to you about that some other time."

"oh, well I don't know what parkour is" said Isaac, trying desperately to keep his secret

"You're paying at least 120 more to get the parkour part in the name, I think you do." Holly decided it would be best not to argue. "Alright. Is that what you're getting?"

"Ok fine, let's just not talk about running in here." said Isaac, realizing he was caught.

"Understandable. Shall we finish here?" Holly concluded the conversation to avoid any more arguing.

"Yeah," said Isaac. He walked up to the counter, slouching and scared of how mad Holly was. "Just these please" he said to the clerk , who looked at him funny.

"1600 please," answered the clerk.

When Isaac was done and they were walking out, Holly decided to fix the mood. "I need you to understand I have a lot on my mind right now. If you are a runner, I see reason for us not to meet."

"but I... I'm sorry" Isaac sighed he looked at his feet and continued to walk.

"I'm not mad at you, I'm worried for you." Holly stared intensly at him.

"Don't be worried I've been doing it for years and I know my limits... I actually don't run much anymore... I'm a tracker" Isaac said.

"That's not my concern. I'm a runner," Holly looked forward again.

"... Haha good one," said Isaac, smiling again. "That made me feel better."

Holly looked at him with a shocked expression, "That make you feel better? Are you kidding me?"

"yeah thanks," said Isaac "you're joking right?"

"No, I'm not joking. I'm NCO." Holly smiled weakly, almost in defeat, "And you're not."

"Well, I'm NN" said Isaac "I hope that doesn't bother you... This relationship isn't exactly professional."

"well I'm NN" said Isaac "I hope that doesn't bother you... This relationship isn't exactly professional"

"I see." Holly sighed, "It doesn't bother me personally. What bothers me is that it will bother my tracker."

"you don't have to tell him do you?" asked Isaac "there's tons of stuff my runners don't tell me."

"Runners have to be trusted. In order to keep a sense of trust, you have to know about your runner's personal life and history to understand their personality. If your runners are keeping secrets, heaven knows what all they could be hiding. I understand you may be easier about it because it makes it easier for your runners feel comfortable working for you, but it's hard to know who is really trust worthy. . . I'll do the best I can however, to keep it secret." Holly concluded.

They walked into the parking lot. "So, what do you want to do now?" asked Isaac.

"I better turn in before they wonder where I've gone." Holly replied, "And you better head back, too. Do you want to meet again?"

"Absolutely," said Isaac, "When and where?"

"Where do you want to go?" Holly asked, looking into the city in order not to make eye contact. It made her uneasy.

"Well maybe... Do you want to meet my friends?"

Holly bit her lip. "If you think that's in your best interest."

"I trust you" said Isaac in all serousness " but if you don't want to than where do YOU want to go?"

"I didn't say I don't want to, it's a matter of what is best for your team. And I can't think of anywhere I'd rather go." Holly couldn't stop thinking about getting caught. It wouldn't be pretty.

"would you EAT if we ate dinner at a fancy restaurant?"

Holly giggled, "Affirmative. Earlier I was uneasy, I appologize."

"it's ok, I was uneasy too but I eat a lot when Im uneasy"

"I am opposite." Holly smiled, "Understandable, I suppose."

"see you tonight?"

"Tonight? How about tomorrow night?" Holly suggested.

"ok" replied Isaac he smiled and began to walk away

"At 7?" Holly asked as he turned away."And where would be nice, too."

"7, at the Japanese steakhouse... If that's okay"

"I'll see you there," Holly left.

**Clash of the Titans**

It was windy up on the 70th floor of the Morrison bank building. Isaac forgot his coat, he toughed it out anyway. From this point, seven hundred feet high, he knew three different, survivable jumps to escape from this building. It was the most dangerous part of the financial district, only the most skilled runners could even make it up to the scaffolding he was on. Even fewer were courageous enough to try.

Isaac, was on the two foot wide ledge jutting off of the 68th floor. Isaac jumped and grabbed a painters scaffolding, rocking it back and forth. He climbed up and the wind suddenly began to whip around. Isaac grabbed the rope that tied the platform to the roof, and climbed up it. He jumped up five feet to the nearest scaffold that was attached to the building he pulled himself up, only to have the wind whip sideways, throwing him off again. He grabbed the rail and vaulted over, his hands nearly too sweaty to hang on, even in the biting cold.

Isaac scaled a nine foot wall and grabbed the wide ledge to the roof. He used all his strength to pull himself up, falling, even to the scaffolding would prove fatal. It wasn't that strong. Once on top of the building, he pulled out his water and took a drink. He was tracking his runner,and his computer crashed; putting him up at a high point in the city, using his high powered binoculars to monitor his workers.  
All was going well on Max's mission, so he put his binoculars away, and drank more water. Isaac was exhausted from all that climbing, so he sat down on the non functional scaffolding elevator at the top of the building.

* * *

Douglas hated these people. Morrison Bank was barely being held together with what little capitol they could hold on to. The only thing that kept them alive, was the 'family-owned' motto that people clung to.

People always like to cling to lies, its sometimes the easiest thing to do. Rather than face the fact. But never the less, here he was, listening to some pencil-pushing accountant prattle off numbers. Quarterly reports were so dull, unless you count the ones at FORN.

It had lasted a while, but the meeting ended, and everyone shook each other's hand, and smiled. Doug complied only becuase in his head he was saying, '_You'll be fired. And you'll be fired._"

Soon everyone but the CEO left, he personally wanted to thank Douglas for being there.

"No problem Michael. I'd just like to take a small break in this meeting hall if you don't mind." He needed one, or else he'd pass out in his office. So the CEO left him alone. Doug turned around and looked out at the city. He walked over to the window and inspected some of the streets.

It was in his concentration that he got startled...

* * *

Isaac was about ready to get down from the building. The mission he had assigned max had went off without a hitch, allowing Isaac to go home and rest. He decided to spice things up and take a risk dropping twenty feet onto the scaffolding below the elevator.

He gathered courage, waited for a lull in the wind, and finally plopped down. A skill-roll would be impossible with only a foot of open space, so he hurt his ankles and knees a little bit on the landing, which also made a LOT of noise, the scaffolding clanging and rocking, but luckily not falling.

* * *

He stood his ground. He knew these kind of people. The ingrates who dare force their ideals down his throat. Their existence an affront to all the work that he is doing. Douglas Forn the Third had come face to face with, _a Runner_.

He stared at him, not letting the seething anger show through, but he knew his smile was gone, replaced by a stern look. But as fast he showed up, he was gone. Douglas would never forget his face. He vowed to take this one out personally. He gathered his coat and left, he hated Morrison bank.

**Burke's going Crazy**

After a not so exciting day of scouting around, Burke decided to chill in town. She had obtained a bad habit of disappearing from the hideout lately, but she didn't intend to fix that anytime soon. Seeing as nothing exciting was really happening lately, no one really missed Burke when she stayed out for no reason at all, so she did. It passed the time, and she'd be back to hear if Isaac really needed her. Right now Burke cruised the New Eden mall without looking for anything in particular. Today would go a little different than Burke's usual Mall adventures, however.

* * *

Lenette finished paying for chrome polish and a regular wax for her car and head out of the store, holding the bag over her arm and trying to shove her credit card back in her wallet while figuring out what to do with the receipt. Looking down the whole time, she didn't see that she was about to walk right into Burke, and did.

Burke stared at Lenette with a blank expression for a minute, then smiled. "Oh man. Hi there," Her smile widened. "I haven't seen you in a while."

"I was about to say sorry for bumping into you until I realized who it was. How you doin' girl?" Lenette laughed and put her wallet away and finally organized herself enough to hug Burke.

"Fairly well actually, I was just thinking about you today. Cool coincidence." Burke laughed a bit, "No really, I've missed you."

"You won't believe this," Lenette smirked, "Dante's married."

"Oh my gosh, Sam, right?" Burke looked horrified, but smiled mischievously. "Too bad Sam is uncool, otherwise I'd congratulate him."

"Oh, it's okay. I got a corvette out of the deal. I say not too shabby," Lenette smiled wide. "In case you're wondering why I'm suddenly into my car." She laughed, before she'd had someone's old ford that barely ran, it was a good change. "Wanna come check it out?"

"Sure. I got nothing better to be doing, or so I believe. Actually I don't know that for real.. but still." Burke laughed at herself. She'd pull it all together when it needed to happen. Lenette lead her out to the parking lot. The corvette was black, the windows were tinted as black as they'd go, and the hubcaps were chrome. "Nice."

"Wanna go for a spin? I haven't taken you on a drive for two years. I think it needs to happen," Lenette grinned, already loving Burke's attention.

Burke's smile drooped a bit and she paused, considering the fact they weren't together anymore, this wouldn't make it easier. Then again, Burke constantly question the reason of their break up. Burke left to become a runner and she didn't want Lenette to be in trouble as well. However, Lenette was always so forgiving it was hard to make that reason enough. Maybe Burke was being over dramatic, she smiled again, just a bit. "Alright, sounds cool." She got in the car and, after a long day out, didn't return to the hideout that night.

**The Steakhouse**

7:00, time to go. Isaac climbed out of the A/C tower, ran straight, and jumped right down to the streets. he didn't care who saw him, he had a date. Isaac planned to be fashionably late, running all the way to the steak house would take him upwards of 3 minutes. he bolted down the narow avenues and alleyways, he didn't mind holly seeing him run now, and he REALLY needed to break in his new shoes.

Holly waited outside the steakhouse patiently. She was a little nervous, but it was normal for her. It seemed even just walking in town made her nervous lately, and she brushed it off.

Isaac, who was going faster than some cars, slowed down. Though Holly knew his secret, he didn't want to embarass her. He stopped, regrouped himself, and walked calmly to Holly, who was waiting at the door.

"You're late," Holly pointed out and raised an eyebrow. "Let's go on in." She smiled teasingly and lead him in, where a waiter counted two and set them at a seat in the back of the restaurant.

"Can I get you something to drink?" The waiter pulled out the little notebook and pen.

"Water is cool for me," Holly replied.

"I'll have Vegade please" responded Isaac, happily.

"Alright," The waiter wrote down their orders and left.

"So what's on your mind?" Holly asked, clasping her hands together and resting them on the table.

"You," replied Isaac. "All day, actually. I got my clothes ironed."

Holly smirked. "I didn't. But I have quite a collection, so generally I have a choice of what's comfortable or more suitable for an occassion."

"Aah," replied isaac. "This is all I have, 'cept a heavy winter coat."

"I see. So apparently nothing exciting has happened for you lately?" Holly inquired, it seemed nothing had happened since she last saw him, though it wasn't really that long ago. Things were a little too relaxed.

"Well," replied Isaac. "I actually met face to face with my sworn enemy on some scaffolding on the 68th floor of the Morrison bank building."

"Sworn enemy? That's interesting. Who might that be?" Holly knew Douglas had gone there just recently, but it was a business trip.

"His name is Douglas K. Forn the third," said Isaac proudly. "The leader of the NCO."

Holly looked confused, what was Douglas doing on the roof? She sighed, "He's my boss."

"I saw him in the meeting hall, we stared at eachother through the window," Isaac continued, "and he's YOUR BOSS!?!?"

"That would be correct," Holly spoke more softly, "That's who I run for." The waiter came with their drinks.

"Thank you," said Isaac, who looked at Holly. "You ready to order?"

"Oh man, I wasn't looking at the menu. Not yet, sorry." Holly smiled uneasily.

"That's fine. I'll be back," The waiter left to go do some other stuff.

"I'm having the shrimp stir fry," said isaac to Holly. "It's good."

"I think I'm going to just have fried rice. . . Egg sounds good right now." Holly sighed, suddenly she'd lost her appetite.

"Oh, no" said Isaac, smiling. "We've decided to to starve I see."

"Starve? Sometimes fried rice bowls are bigger than you expect." Holly laughed, "I'll add shrimp to it too."

"Okay, thats a little better," joked Isaac. "But if you die from starvation, I'll never forgive myself"

"I don't intend to." Holly smiled, a little uneasily. The waiter returned at a really convenient time. "You can go first Isaac."

The waiter had his notebook and pen ready, "What would you like today?"

"Shrimp stir fry, sir. You're going to cook it in front of us, right?"

The waiter disregarded the last part, "And you?"

"Fried rice with shrimp," Holly concluded.

"Very well, it should be done soon."

"Uuh... so..." said Isaac, blinking rapidly. "You been here before?"

Holly shook her head. "I don't spend much time in town, these have been my first two restaurants in years."

"Wow, where do you live, outskirts?"

"No, I choose not to spend too much time here. I don't know why, I'm more comfortable that way." The waiter brough the food. "Oh, thank you," Holly said and the waiter left.

"That was really fast" said Isaac, the waiter didn't hear. "Well, let's eat."

After they finished eating, paid, and left, the sun was nearly set. "Hm, the sunset isn't very dramatic tonight," Holly pointed out as she looked into the dark blue sky.

"It never really is," responded Isaac, "the buildings always block it out."

"You're probably right," Holly said, trying to peek between buildings.

"Oh my gosh, Hi guys." Burke smiled as she walked up behind them. "Mainly hi Isaac 'cause I don't know who you are," She said to Holly, who laughed. "Hello. I am Leila Burke. You can call me Burke. Who are you?"

"I'm Holly," Holly giggled, "You sure have good timing."

"Actually, I was just heading back.. to.. Uh. Home. After two days of not being there. . . Sorry Isaac. I found something really cool."

"It's ok, burke. there aren't any jobs for you... but I ate you're cake" said isaac, happy to see her

"Uhhh... Okay? That's cool. I don't know how old it was anyway. So Holly, you must be THE Holly. That Isaac talks about. Cool." Burke smiled.

Holly laughed, "Isaac? You make me seem so special."

Isaac turned red with embarrassment. "You are special" isaac giggled.

Burke smirked, "Ohhhh Isaac just giggled. That's so unIsaacy. It's like, he's going crazy or soemthing." Isaac remained red.

Holly smiled uneasily. "I better head back before I get killed, it really was a nice visit today, Isaac. And nice to meet you, Burke." Holly stumbled at the name Burke, which seemed a bit manly for the small, red-headed girl.

"It's cool, I can leave." Burke held up her hands, "I'm kidding. I really am going though. I'll see you at the hideout, Isaac. Byebye." Burke left.

"bye, Burke!" Isaac yelled as she ran off.

"I really should go," Holly sighed, "I really don't want to, but for my own good."

"Umm, bye..." said Isaac, still embarrassed and smiling.

Holly hugged him, "I'll see you again soon. Maybe the day after tomorrow? At the front of the mall again. . . at 9? In the morning?"

"okay, I'll see you then" Isaac said excitedly.

"Alright," Holly smiled and left.

**Jacob Strano's Old Friends**

"Here you go..." Jacob said as he tossed the neon yelow bag to his client, who replied with a thankful grunt.  
"Huh, you're welcome." Jacob replied.  
"Nice job, Jake. Now get back to base." Isaac's voice crackeld through Jacob's earpiece. Jacob started to jogg back, picking up momentum, and soon let his body take over his mind's position. He was instinctively running, jumping, sliding, flipping, and rolling around the rooftops of the city. He memorized these routes, like all of his fellow runners have. His mind drifted away from the present, and he began to daydream while running. Jacob loved to let his mind wonder while he was running. It was always the one time of the day where he was truly free. His mind quickly snapped back to reality when he landed on a roof with a bright green metal pole standing erect at the center. He remembered this as a landmark when he was a kid. He was part of a small gang, and they would normally regroup at the alley of this building.

Jacob looked around, saw that the area was empty, and stood there a while, letting his mind relish in the memories of his childhood. He stood there a while, thinking, remembering, wondering where everyone he had known went. As if on cue; a muffled thump sounded behind him. Jacob defensively spun around and went into his fighting stance to face the figure that had just tried to sneak up on him. His adrenaline suddenly spiked.

"_Linda._" He said in a deep plain voice. "What, feel like rustling up some rebels today?" He asked coyly. Linda stayed silent, walked up to him, and peeked down at the alley that was their old hideout.  
"I like to go here sometimes..." She replied.  
"Trying to catch me off guard, nice." Jacob said. Linda ignored him.  
"Remember when we first met?" She asked. Jacob took a step back.  
"Yeah. Don't see how that affects the here and now, though." Jacob replied. Linda smiled and shook her head.  
"Typical pessemist. You haven't changed a bit. Jacob, I'm sorry." Linda said. Jacob turned around.  
"For what?" He asked. Linda reached into her pocket, and pulled out a square defvice with a red button. She pressed it.  
"For this." She said. Almost instantly, two persuit cops climbed up onto the roof and were standing next to Linda.

Jacob already knew what was going on. He turned around and bolted away. Linda and the two persuit cops were right on his tail. He ducked, jumped, slid, and ran over and under the many obsticles of the gleaming city. The persuiers were right on him. He then jumped over a fence, made a sharp right beind an AC unit, and dove off of the building, landing on a large cube of cardborad boxes covered in a blue tarp. Jacob quickly turned around to see if they would follow. A persuit cop was the first to jump. Jacob stood where he was, and waited for him to jump.

The persuier leaped off of the building, and landed right next to Jacob, who gave a hard front kick while the cop was recovering. The persuit cop stumbled backwards, and landed behind the structure of boxes, on the hard marble roof; knocking him out. Jacob used the momentum from the kick to take off again, now with only two persuers. To Jacob's expectation, Linda was a great runner. She was right on him, and the persuit cop was right behind her. Jacob couldn't turn to fight, he was out numbered. He did the only thing he could do. He ran. He ran until his muscles burned and his veins pumped battery acid. And then he ran some more. He was coming along the edge of a building, and was abut to jump to the one adjacent, when he saw that the top window was wide open. It was a long shot, but he decided to try it.

When he came to the edge of the building, he launched off, putting his body into a swimmer's dive position, and shot straight into the window. Jacob's forearms came in contact with a wooden desk, and that gave him the signal to bend his arms as he was seconds away from contact with the floor. He moved his body so that he preformed a nearly perfect skill roll. He landed in an office, and the top corner of a cubicle nicked his shoulder, causing him to bleed.  
"Damn." Jacob mumbled, he was leaving a trail. As soon as he was back on his feet he continued to run until he was at the other side of the building. He was sure Linda and the persuit cop was right on top of him on the roof. He leaped out of the second window, on to the next building's pole that ran up along its side. A quick gaze up showed Jacob that Linda and the cop had already leaped to the other side; they didn't see him. He quickly slid down to near street level, and eentered through one of the second building's open windows. It was empty. Jacob sighed and continued to run through to the other side, looking for an elevator. Linda and the cop should have called off their search by now.

He quickly found an elevator, and was on his way back up to near roof level, using that precious minute in the elevator to breath again. Once the elevator was at the top, Jacob sprinted up the stairs, knocked down the door, and got aquainted with a gloved fist. Linda was waiting for him.  
"Tazer him!" He heard he yell. The persuit cop reached for his tazer, Jacob acted quickly and kicked it out of his hand. He then countered with a right hook to the side of the cop's head. Linda ran at him and attempted a hard front punch. Jacob brushed it a way and countered with a sweep kick. He then ran forward to more open space. The persuit cop was charging at him again. Jacob did the same, but when the cop motioned to punch Jacob, he started to slide, and kicked the cop square in his gut, where the padding of the suit was the thinnest for flexible movement. The kick was hard enough to wind him. Jacob then shoulder bashed the cop, causing him to stumble off the building.

Linda was up and punched at Jacob again. He blocked the first one, but the second one caught him in his right ear. Jacob stumbled, and gave Linda an oppertunity to knee him in the stomach. He fell back, near the edge of the building.  
Jacob was now laying on his back, at the edge of a 20 foot tall building. Linda walked up to him triumphantly.  
"I think it's time you went to sleep." She said. She then raised her foot, and slammed it downward. Jacob caught it, pushed it away to his left, shot up, and grabbed her throat.  
"Listen." He growled in anger. "I could damn near end your life right now. But I'm not." He then let go. Linda jumped backwards, grabbing her throat and breathing deeply. When she recovered, she glared at Jacob, and ran off. Jacob waited until she was way out of sight before he ran back to base. Damn, she had a _really_ hard hook...

**Pirandello Krueger's New Improvement**

"Yes, along with his name, what kind of troop he is, and even how far away he is."  
"And this will be standar eqiupment for all PKs?"  
"We hope that, and to get the city survailance cameras, and even the CPF to have it. But in the beginning it will only be the PK Pursiute cops."  
"One last thing. How do I tell my "third eye" who is a target?"  
"It is suposed to be when you think of it..." James interupted sceptic "WHAT?"  
"Using you thoughts to command equipment of this kind is not uncommon in modern warfare, but we still have problems making this part work, as it IS one of the more advanced parts of it"  
"I must say you impress me, and I sure hope you get it in production soon."  
"So do I. Have a good day James"

James was in a very good mood when he left the research facility. But if he knew the runners right the project wouldn't stay secret for too long. And they definetly would try to interupt it.

James hated the PK research facility. Walking alone in the birght, clean, long hallways made James feal like a prisonner. But today he was there to hear about the nevest PK invention. He didn't know what it was, but he was told it would make the "troops" better orientated in the city. James thought that was bullshit: he knew the city, and the other PK-pursiute cops knew it almost as well as he did. Still he wanted to be one of the first to see what the PirandelloKruger scientist could come up with.

James hadn't heard of any major breakthroughs from the PK-scientists, but one has to be the first.

James aproached the room he was told to enter. He hadn't seen anyone since he entered the building. He entered the room.

The room was as bright as the hallway, and smelled as clean, but here there were people: Two scientist, and the project leader; a man called Peter Magnusson. Peter Magnusson was from Sweden, had blond hair, and a soft face, with blue eys. "Velkommen" he said, and shaked hands with James. "You will be the first to test our nevest invention." he said. One of the scientist showed James the futuristic looking eyepatch that was lying on the table.

"This device is called "third eye", and is a part of the project "City tracking" It has 3 main purposes: To tell the base where each PK troop is located, to allow each PK troops to know where his mates are located, and the newest function: to locate targets."  
"Impressive" James answered "How does it work?" Peter picked up the eyepatch, and began to point and explain:  
"First of all it has this sender, which sends GPS-coordinates to a server. The server keeps track of each of the devices' motherboard chip, the so called "Fanserone Chip" Each chip has its own number, and the server then knows which chips are PK pursiute cops, which are SWAT teams, which are cameras, and so on. The chips main purpose hover is to "recognize" certain people and objects. Here is a small camera. The chip is directly connected to the camera, and can see everything the user sees. If a troop is folowing an importaint person, for instance a runner, his third eye can then notice how he looks, and send that info to all other devices with a Fanserone Chip. If the target gets away, we will be able to find him as soon as he is within the view of a camera, or another PK troop."  
"Sounds good! when will we be able to use these?"  
"We are almost done with the third eye, but it still has some minor flaws. we are fixing them, but we belive to be ready for massproduction in less than a month."  
"Hmm you still haven't explained why there is this... thing... that goes in front of your eye... what is that for?"  
"oh yes, that is a HeadsUp Display, it can show a map of the city with markings of where targets and other devices are, or it can show what you currently see, but with an overlay telling the same kind of info, but on your current view."  
"So if I look in the direction of a PK I can see where he is?"  
"Yes, along with his name, what kind of troop he is, and even how far away he is."  
"And this will be standar eqiupment for all PKs?"  
"We hope that, and to get the city survailance cameras, and even the CPF to have it. But in the beginning it will only be the PK Pursiute cops."  
"One last thing. How do I tell my "third eye" who is a target?"  
"It is suposed to be when you think of it..." James interupted sceptic "WHAT?"  
"Using you thoughts to command equipment of this kind is not uncommon in modern warfare, but we still have problems making this part work, as it IS one of the more advanced parts of it"  
"I must say you impress me, and I sure hope you get it in production soon."  
"So do I. Have a good day James"

James was in a very good mood when he left the research facility. But if he knew the runners right the project wouldn't stay secret for too long. And they definetly would try to interupt it.

**The Most Important Package**

3:00 A.M., Isaac's alarm rang... quietly, not to wake up anyone else. they said that the night was always darkest before the dawn, and it was true, from the slats in Isaac and the gang's A/C tower, the city looked utterly lifeless. all the lights were out, not a soul was moving... except isaac. the city looked... almost evil without all it's glitz and lights.

"dion,"`whispered isaac "DION!" whispered isaac even louder, waking him up.

"is this a prank?"

"no," said isaac. "dont you remember? the delivery. I need your help. the gangs are out."

"ok. you have a gun for me? cause I dont think I can sniper support you all the way through their neighbourhood"

"we'll be in closed alleys" replied isaac. "heres a fast firing machine gun thing." isaac handed Dion a TMP he had purchased earlier.

"Ok" Dion took the TMP noticed it only had a single 30round clip "You sure you shouldn't have bought some ammo for it?"

"I ran out of cash" replied isaac. "now lets go"

Isaac rustled dion from his cot and they climbed out of the A/C tower. they ran to the edge of the building. "you go ahead and take the elevator," said isaac, "I'll see you at the bottom" Isaac leaped off the edge of the low building. he landed with a loud thud. the long fall woke him up. he waited for Dion at the door.

"I hope you have a good plan: we dont have any better protection than a heavy pistol, and only one mag. thats 3 bursts!"

"pick up ammo from the gang members" responded isaac in a reassuring tone.

"Ok well if we even have time to do that after the first 30 bullets are fired"

"easily," said isaac, confidently "you've got a big-ass blasting gun there"

"yea yea... if you say... where to?"

"follow me," Isaac said. and he began to run. Dion kept up suprisingly well for this late at night.... or early in the morning. In about 10 minutes, the two reached the alley.

"this package is far too important to deliver during the day when the CPF and NCO are prowling" said isaac, cautioning Dion. "but bullets are gonna fly, the gangs dealing drugs in here hate runners." with that, Isaac turned to the building on his right and began scaling the intriquite ledges, windows, and pipes until he reached the top. he motioned dion to wait for him to come back.

Dion was standing and waiting for Isaac to come back. He looked around himself: he havnt ben a lot in this part of the city. Nothing suspicious seemed to happen, it was in the middle of the night, and there was almost empty streets to all sides. Dion could see a drug dealer in an alley from where he was standing. Dion had seen a lot of drug dealers, but it was uncommon dealing was so open and easy to see

Isaac got to the north end of the roof and stopped. he dropped prone and peeked over the edge. on the ground he saw 3 gang members, 2 of which were armed. he gasped, and moved back to dion's position. "2 armed guards and a dealer" said isaac, in a nervous voice.

"What you want me to do?" Dion asked. he still didnt know what Isaac wanted to happen, but he knew he wouldnt be able to just shoot 2 guards. They might only be gangsters, but when I comes to close quarters Dion was nothing better. and he was one gun against at least two

"I'll get their attention, once you hear the bangs, you go in, guns 'a' blazin'!" said isaac "sound good?"

"so your plan is to get them to shoot you? man this is suicide!"

"I'm 120 feet high, they'll miss." said isaac, not knowing the power of a gun like theirs. In all his 11 years of running, he had only been shot by a .22 that the police are issued one time. and he didn't even notice until later.

"Wont hit? I know they arent as trained in weapons use as the army, and though iv got the best training in snipers it doesnt mean I hit any better than they do when im shooting this SMG"

"just do it." said isaac "this object is more important than both of our lives"

"ok but I warned you"

Isaac ran to the edge of the roof, tossed a glass bottle off, and shouted at the top of his lungs. the gang members reacted stunningly fast and fired directly up at him, missing by inches many times. isaac ran back, letting dion finish the job. as winston churchill once said: 'nothing in life is so exhilerating as to be shot at without result', isaac was pretty pumped.

Dion jumped round the corner as soon as he heard any shot, and saw two gangsters pointing their TMPs at Isaac. Dion first fired a full burst of ten bullets on the one closest to himself, hitting with all of them as he was at point blank range. Isaac had disappeared in the mean time, and the other gangster was reloading his gun. Dion fired a second burst, hitting only 3 times, but the hits didnt seem to affect the gangster. "boddyarmour" Dion's brain fast concluded. with his rifle he wouldnt notice this before the death of the target. Dion switched to semi auto, and aimed for the head of the gangster. By a wonder he hit just barely the nose of him, wich seemed to hurt him, and made him drop the magazine. It appeared to be a 15 round mag. Dion aproached the target, and placed 2 shots in the head of him. He aproached the bodey, and was just about to shout to Isaac, when he got hit by something in his left shoulder. Through the pain Dion's reflexes made him turn sharp, and he saw the dealer he had completely forgotten. He had a M1911 in his hand. The second world war gun wasn't that powerfull, but the hit seamed to have penetrated some bone in Dion's shoulder. In one move Dion set the selector to burst and fired the last bullets from the magazine.

Isaac saw what had hapened and leaped off of the building, only to miss the pipe on the other side by inches, and fall eleven stories into a dumpster. he was okay. he climbed out and found dion hiding in cover. Isaac ran into the crossway between the alleys and rolled behind a barrel. he picked up the gun of a fallen gang member and began firing wildly in the direction of the gang members. more and more poured in, and Isaac kept missing. he realized that trying to learn to use a gun in the middle of a life and death situation was futile , he tossed the gun to dion.

Dion picked up the TMP Isaac threw, and switched it back on semi. Dion didn't like spray'n'pray, and he was a skilled sniper, so he always tried to hit with all bullets, but the TMP was a whole other gun. First of all Dion was used to have a big gun, deployed with a bipod, and a magnifying scope, and the bullet being presice. The TMP however had a large clip, but each bullet didnt do a lot of damage, and worst of all was unpresice. Holding the weapon even felt wrong for Dion. But the gangsters seemed to be lacking skills with guns as well. They held their weapon in only one hand, and seemed to not even look at the crosshair. They sprayed a lot of bullets, but didnt hit anything. Dion's position allowed a full cover when he ducked, and he could shoot back if he took his head up from the cover. He shot back in semi auto, and hit a lot better than the gangsters. Also he could file for a lot longer time, as the gangsters just emptied clip after clip not hitting anything. but they were just way too many. "We'r pinned down! whats your plan to get out of here?"

"we gotta fight them off!" shouted isaac, "stay here, I'm gonna go around behind them"

Dion reloaded a 30 clip, and signaled to Isaac, then he began to shoot at the gangsters again

With that, Isaac ran back, just outt of sight of the gangsters, and once again began scaling the buildings wall. when he crested the top, he did not rest, he didn't stop, he stepped back, and sprinted foreward. the building ahead of him was higher than him, and he couldnt climb it from here, and the building beside him was also higher, but climbing it means the gangsters would see him. the only other option was the building diagonally across the alley intersection, over the thugs. he made the leap, 11 meters, he berely made it. he ran along the edge of this tower and jumped to the next. he looked down, making sure no one was coming, and began to climb down the building face. he jumped off at the bottom and radioed dion: "I'm in position"

"Ok wait 5 seconds then attack" Dion replied, and ducked. While counting he rejected the half-empty clip, and  
inserted the last full 30 magazine, then he switched to burst fire, and began to shoot just when he had counted "5"

"one problem," said Isaac "I cant fight"

"Flanking was YOUR idea!"

"uuh yeah..." said isaac, confused "I never thought I'd get this far"

"Just pick up a gun, and fire it point blank. a 14 year old kid could do that"

Isaac picked up a gun from behind a dead enemy, spent a considerable amount of time deciding which end to point at the guy, and fired. The gun was a beretta m92, and had 15 rounds, which isaac fired wildly toward the pack, only sucessfully killing one of the two. that immediately got the attention of the other gang member who turned around and began blasting at Isaac's trash can-cover. "how do I reload this gun?" asked Isaac, over the radio.

"I dont know how to reload your gun; I dont know what gun you are holding. If you can try finding another weapon"

"IF I EVEN BUDGE, HE'LL HIT ME!" screamed Isaac into the radio over the guns loud report

"Ok crash course in reloading: One: set the selector on "safe" this is very importaint when you are not used to handle weapons. two: Eject the magazine. this is done by a button near the magazine, either above it on the left side, or where the magazine and the feeder touches eachother. three: insert a new magazine. four: turn off the safety!" screamed dion over the radio.

"WHAT?!?!?" yelled isaac over the radio

"Forget it, after this ill give you some gun training. maybe we should run the BCT for the whole team" Dion replied, and ejected the empty clip, then inserted the half-empty he had ejected when Isaac leaped over the gangsters. He set the selector on "burst" and emptied the clip, ind what seemed to be a shorter burst than a full 10 shots, killing the gangster pinning himself down. He threw the empty gun to his right, and vaulted over what he was hidden behind. then picked up the Mac10 from the gangster he just killed. He ran up close to the one pinning down Isaac, and held the trigger, till the magazine was empty. "NOW WE RUN!" Dion shouted, and ran to the dumpster Isaac was hiding behind.

"here come more from the left" shouted isaac, "run, take cover!" Isaac and Dion ran a good 40 feet down the

alley before the gang members running in the left path spotted them and opened fire. Isaac and Dion dove behind a stack of construction wood and prepared for a close encounter.

"I have no gun!" Dion said to Isaac. "Why was it again that we needed to do this?!"

"this is the most important package I've EVER delivered!" screamed isaac over the roar of the AK47 fire. "taking the streets would have resulted in more fighting!" Isaac fanagled the magazine into the dirty M92, and pushed a lever at random. the slide came foreward. he showed it to Dion "did I do this right?"

"Gimme that, as said if we live through this you need gun training" Dion prepared the gun "I can give you cover for only a short time, what will you do while I cover you?"

"I'll do the shooting"replied Isaac, still yelling "go to the building across from us, take the elevator to the roof, and find the rifle up there. I got krieg to drop off a rifle for this situation"

"I dont know how you anticipated this, but I dont care, as long as we get out alive, and you get some gun training!" Dion shouted back, and gave Isaac the gun, then he sprinted to the building and entered the elevator

To cover Dion, Isaac popped out from behind the plywood, and fired 4 shots wildly at the gang, to draw the fire away from dion. when dion got into the building, Isaac fired again, but the gun jammed. as he jerked the slide wildly, forgetting to crouch, the 2 gang members began to fire at him. they missed, but Isaac still didn't crouch. they re loaded, and Isaac finally got the shell out. Isaac fired at them again, beginning to understand why there were little bumps and dots ontop of the gun; aiming. Isaac hit one gang member In the head, and pranced around to celbrate his kill. the other thug, enraged by his friends death, fired wildly in the direction of isaac, hitting him three times. Isaac, yelping in pain collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely. he was hit in the side of the leg, the arm, and the inside of his leg. he could only hope  
dion was in position

Dion found the SVD-137 on the roof. He recognized the sniper instantly: the russian gangs sometimes had snipers positioned in their safest area, and Dion had learned to fear this particular rifle. But he didnt have time to think about that, grabbed the rifle, and used just a few seconds to get familiar with the design. He sat the safety swich off, and began to lay some 7.62mm rounds down against the gangsters. Dion was not used to use semi automatic snipers, both of his own was bolt action: more powerfull, more acurate. But in this situation Dion was happy to have the high rate of fire, and cause of the relative short range he still hit with all shots, and did kill almost every time

Isaac, his vision blurring, was overjoyed to witness the killing of the gang member that had shot him. he got up

and began scaling the outside of the building where dion was perched. he reached the top, ran up, and hugged dion.

"dude, I love you" said isaac "now help patch me up?"

"I have no first-aid kit!"

"I do, hold on"

Isaac began to reach into the large pocket in his sweatpants. he pulled out some gause, some quick-clot, plyers, and painkillers. Isaac took a deep breath, put the pliers in his wound, and yanked out the large 7.62 round. he screamed in pain. again, and again he pulled out the other rounds. blood gushed out of the wounds. isaac took another deep breath, poured some quik-clot on his wound, he yelped even louder this time. he did it to the rest of his wounds, getting progressively more used to it. he wrapped up his wounds one by one, and took some pain killer pills, followed by a swig from his canteen, which he kept in his pocket on a wallet chain.

Isaac got up "just a little further, come on, we'll be late!"

"If you can run with those wounds! ok we better get going before more of them shows up." Dion rejected the magazine currently in the SVD. Only 3 bullets, not worth keeping. He dropped the rifle, and they ran

Isaac and Dion ran straight ahead, and they came to the first jump. "4 1/2 meters" Isaac said. "can you make it?"

"Im used to having a big gun on my back. with it no, without: yes"

"Alright," said Isaac "jump when your ready" isaac strolled up to the gap and cleared it with no effort what-so-ever. "come on," isaac yelled from the other side

Dion didnt have that much troubble clearing the jump, but he could see that even the wounded Isaac was better at running than Dion.

"here we are," said isaac, suprisingly winded "we just need to climb up this fire escape and the drop-off zone is on the roof"

Dion looked around, then walked back a few steps. he ran full speed and jumped the gap to the fire escape and began climbing the stairs. Isaac flashed dion a thumbs up, then non-chalantly hopped to the rail. he began climbing the fire escapes like a ladder, there wasn't enough room for 2 people standing on the inside.

"So what are we delivering?" Dion asked, and looked at the runners bag Isaac had in a strap 'round his shoulder

"I dont even know," said isaac "the head honchos of our intelligence organization wouldn't tell me, they just said that I was the only one that they trusted to deliver it"

"Well whatever it is, we'r about to deliver it, and then go home. Sorry about throwing your TMP away. how much we getting from this job? cause I hope it was worth the TMP"

"It's my job, they pay me 12000 because it's so important. you'll get half"

"6k? nice then ill try to learn some SMG-use, because it seems im the only one who can use a gun in the NN... But how am I to get lessons now that I'm and outlaw like you guys?... Well I can onder bout that when we get home..." Dion concluded as they reached the top of the building.

"we drop it here." grunted isaac, who was in pain. "this power wire will take us to the building adjacent to our A/C tower  
"How come it was so hard to get here if wer so close to the base? anyways I just wanna go home now" Dion said. Isaac placed the bag at the middle of the roof, then they both used the powercable as a zipline, and jumped of at the roof it lead to

**On Patrol**

Sheena sat at the edge of the roof of a tall skyscraper, scanning the gleaming white metropolis. Static euphorically crackled into her left ear, her earpeace picking up minimal chatter between CPFs communicating through two way communicators. Her hope was that she would hear someone, anyone who was a runner talking to their superior. If she could find this chatter, her endless slumber of boredom would finally be broken. TAking down petty criminals with no rythumn, no flexability, no agility whatsoever got very drull very quickly.

She knew these thoughts were selfish, and she needed to look out for the city to protect the citizens, not for her entertainment. But part of her couldn't help but complain. Just when she was about to get up and leave, a very faint voice crackled into her ear.

"Relax, I just delivered it."

_Finally!_ Sheena thought. Her eyes quickly scanned the area for the voice's owner. A single person was sprinting and leaping along the roofs of buildings several miles away from the skyscraper she was standing on. A large leap, a skill roll, and a sprint to the next building was all it took before she was on the runner's tail. He wore nearly all black, had short brown hair, and dark skin. He didn't notice her yet; she had time for a surprise attack. She quickly reached for the tazer holstered to her thigh, aimed it at the runner's back, and pulled the trigger. A sudden shock engulfed the runner, forcing him to stop and crumple to the ground.

"Too easy." Sheena whispered to herself. She walked up to the runner and got a good look at his face. His left cheek had two paralell scars on it. His eyes were wide open with surprise. His left eye's pupil was noticably smaller than his right.

"We don't get too many of you runners into our prisons." Sheena taunted.  
"It's good to collect as many as we can. You guys are rare."

The runner stopped shaking, so the electricity must have worn off. Still, his nervous system was disrupted, and he shouldn't be able to move for a while.

As if on cue, the runner sprang both his legs upp, stood up on his hands, and began to spin with his legs extended, making a helecopter's propellers motion with them, nearly knocking Sheena off of her feet.  
"Surprise!" he yelled as he turned around and sped off, a gust of wind had lifted the back part of his shirt, revealing a mesh like under armor with a thick rubber padding on the back. He then sprinted off, leaving Sheena dumbfounded. Had she really been outsmarted?

Jacob sighed in relief. He was really lucky. He decided to put on that rubber pad on his back in case he fell too far down, as his mission took him to the part of the city where the buildings were very high. He had no idea a persuit cop would try and taze him. He got a bad shock, but some of the disorientation part was reduced. His left leg was extremely numb, but he could move it. That was all he needed to get going.

Sheena snapped out of her trance and bolted after the runner. There was no way she was going to let him get away now. She had little trouble catching up with him, he was a relatively slow runner. They reached the end of a buildind. This building had a billboard that was halfway bolted to its roof. The other half bridged over to the other building. The runner leaped over to the next building. Sheena jumped, and wallran across the billboard, which took her to the same building the runner had landed on. She used the billboard to leap off of and gain enough momentum to do a forward dive toward the runner. She flew towards him, and grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to the ground. She then flipped over the runner and landed gracefully on her feet.

"Son of a... that hurt." The runner grunted as he got to his feet. Sheena charged at him with an axe kick, which the runner dodged with a roll to his right. She quickly recovered and sprinted at him with a right punch. The runner caught her fist and countered with a swift knee to the stomach. The blow slightly winded her, and forced her to take a step back. The runner took one step forward and preformed a hard jump kick which caught her in the chin. Sheena backed away even further and waited for the runner to attack again. He ran at her with his right fist pulled back, ready to deliver another blow. Sheena was ready, though and caught his fist as he punched. She then swept her right foot under his left, causing him to lose his balance. She then gave him a swift chop in the chest. Forcing him on his back.

She was going to finish him with a swift stomp in his stomach, but he lifted his knee and blocked it. He then grabbed her foot and pushed up, causing her to stumble back. Sheena ran at him agian with great speed. She then spun around when she was about two steps away from him. She used the momentum from the spin to preform a hard back kick that hit the runner in his chest. The blow made him leap back and grab his chest where he had been hit. He kneeled down and grunted in pain. Sheena charged at him and launched off the roof of the building, her right knee extended and aimed for the stunned runner.

He was aware of what was happening and rolled out of the way. Just as she landed, he sweep kicked her, making her fall on her back. The runner used the momentum from the kick to stand up right, and with his leg still extended, he did an axe kick aimed for Sheena's stomach. She rolled out of the way in time, got to her feet, and tackled the runner to the ground. She pinned both his arms down by resting both her knees on his shoulders, keeping him in enough pain not to try anything. With that, she pulled out her spare tazer. This tazer wasn't long range, it had to be pressed against bare skin. And that's exactly what she did. She pressed it against the runner's neck, his scream echoed throughout the pearly white city, and just as suddenly as it had started, it vanished. The runner was unconscious. With a sigh, Sheena pressed on her earpeace.

"I need a SWAT truck by the Cerulian Plaza, ASAP." a gruff man's voice confirmed soon afterwards. Sheena got up off of the runner's unconscious body and smiled to herself. Turns out today wasn't so boring after all.

Sheena sat at the edge of the roof of a tall skyscraper, scanning the gleaming white metropolis. Static euphorically crackled into her left ear, her earpeace picking up minimal chatter between CPFs communicating through two way communicators. Her hope was that she would hear someone, anyone who was a runner talking to their superior. If she could find this chatter, her endless slumber of boredom would finally be broken. TAking down petty criminals with no rythumn, no flexability, no agility whatsoever got very drull very quickly.

She knew these thoughts were selfish, and she needed to look out for the city to protect the citizens, not for her entertainment. But part of her couldn't help but complain. Just when she was about to get up and leave, a very faint voice crackled into her ear.

"Relax, I just delivered it."

_Finally!_ Sheena thought. Her eyes quickly scanned the area for the voice's owner. A single person was sprinting and leaping along the roofs of buildings several miles away from the skyscraper she was standing on. A large leap, a skill roll, and a sprint to the next building was all it took before she was on the runner's tail. He wore nearly all black, had short brown hair, and dark skin. He didn't notice her yet; she had time for a surprise attack. She quickly reached for the tazer holstered to her thigh, aimed it at the runner's back, and pulled the trigger. A sudden shock engulfed the runner, forcing him to stop and crumple to the ground.

"Too easy." Sheena whispered to herself. She walked up to the runner and got a good look at his face. His left cheek had two paralell scars on it. His eyes were wide open with surprise. His left eye's pupil was noticably smaller than his right.

"We don't get too many of you runners into our prisons." Sheena taunted.  
"It's good to collect as many as we can. You guys are rare."

The runner stopped shaking, so the electricity must have worn off. Still, his nervous system was disrupted, and he shouldn't be able to move for a while.

As if on cue, the runner sprang both his legs upp, stood up on his hands, and began to spin with his legs extended, making a helecopter's propellers motion with them, nearly knocking Sheena off of her feet.  
"Surprise!" he yelled as he turned around and sped off, a gust of wind had lifted the back part of his shirt, revealing a mesh like under armor with a thick rubber padding on the back. He then sprinted off, leaving Sheena dumbfounded. Had she really been outsmarted?

Jacob sighed in relief. He was really lucky. He decided to put on that rubber pad on his back in case he fell too far down, as his mission took him to the part of the city where the buildings were very high. He had no idea a persuit cop would try and taze him. He got a bad shock, but some of the disorientation part was reduced. His left leg was extremely numb, but he could move it. That was all he needed to get going.

Sheena snapped out of her trance and bolted after the runner. There was no way she was going to let him get away now. She had little trouble catching up with him, he was a relatively slow runner. They reached the end of a buildind. This building had a billboard that was halfway bolted to its roof. The other half bridged over to the other building. The runner leaped over to the next building. Sheena jumped, and wallran across the billboard, which took her to the same building the runner had landed on. She used the billboard to leap off of and gain enough momentum to do a forward dive toward the runner. She flew towards him, and grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to the ground. She then flipped over the runner and landed gracefully on her feet.

"Son of a... that hurt." The runner grunted as he got to his feet. Sheena charged at him with an axe kick, which the runner dodged with a roll to his right. She quickly recovered and sprinted at him with a right punch. The runner caught her fist and countered with a swift knee to the stomach. The blow slightly winded her, and forced her to take a step back. The runner took one step forward and preformed a hard jump kick which caught her in the chin. Sheena backed away even further and waited for the runner to attack again. He ran at her with his right fist pulled back, ready to deliver another blow. Sheena was ready, though and caught his fist as he punched. She then swept her right foot under his left, causing him to lose his balance. She then gave him a swift chop in the chest. Forcing him on his back.

She was going to finish him with a swift stomp in his stomach, but he lifted his knee and blocked it. He then grabbed her foot and pushed up, causing her to stumble back. Sheena ran at him agian with great speed. She then spun around when she was about two steps away from him. She used the momentum from the spin to preform a hard back kick that hit the runner in his chest. The blow made him leap back and grab his chest where he had been hit. He kneeled down and grunted in pain. Sheena charged at him and launched off the roof of the building, her right knee extended and aimed for the stunned runner.

He was aware of what was happening and rolled out of the way. Just as she landed, he sweep kicked her, making her fall on her back. The runner used the momentum from the kick to stand up right, and with his leg still extended, he did an axe kick aimed for Sheena's stomach. She rolled out of the way in time, got to her feet, and tackled the runner to the ground. She pinned both his arms down by resting both her knees on his shoulders, keeping him in enough pain not to try anything. With that, she pulled out her spare tazer. This tazer wasn't long range, it had to be pressed against bare skin. And that's exactly what she did. She pressed it against the runner's neck, his scream echoed throughout the pearly white city, and just as suddenly as it had started, it vanished. The runner was unconscious. With a sigh, Sheena pressed on her earpeace.

"I need a SWAT truck by the Cerulian Plaza, ASAP." a gruff man's voice confirmed soon afterwards. Sheena got up off of the runner's unconscious body and smiled to herself. Turns out today wasn't so boring after all.

**Epilogue to On Patrol**

Isaac sat down at his desk with a fresh, cold coca-cola. he noticed that Jacob's image on the radar was still.

"1500 cash is being transfered into your account, Jacob" Isaac said... nothing came back over the comms unit.

"Jacob..." isaac tried again

"JACOOOOOB" Isaac yelled, worried for his runners life. still no luck.

**From back in the day**

When Isaac opened his eyes, he would've just closed them again, if it weren't for the plans he had made that day. He stood up, the sun shining through the slats in the A/C tower lighting up the otherwise dull room. he yawned, stretched, jumped, and did his first dead-weight pullup of the day, straining his lanky arms. the bright sun made him squint. he wanted nothing more to go back to sleep- but he didn't. he jumped off the A/C tower, bounced, and began running, he vaulted over the protruding pipe on the roof, he knew it so well, every time he went east, he hopped that same pipe. it wasnt long after that he began counting his steps. then his breaths. then his heartbeat. he reached the edge of the rooftop, and with all his might (and a little he probably didn't have) jumped, all the way across the 3 lane road to the roof on the other side, landing in a perfect roll. It was going to be a good day.

Isaac loved trying new things, especially new jumps. he had never made that jump before, no one had. Isaac wasn't one to chicken out of things, but whenever he hesitated, he always decided not to try, that's why it was best if he did it first thing in the morning, when he was too apathetic and tired to doubt himself. his skills were sufficient enough to make any- ANY jump in the city. Isaac turned away from his accomplishment and continued running. after that jump, everything else would prove too easy to excite him. a full 12.5 meters.

He was getting closer to his target.

***

Marco Peschi took the elevator to the roof of the apartment building next to the police station. he pulled his rifle off of his back and aimed directly ahead, watching all of the civilians live their daily lives in an ignorant bliss.

He looked all around, not a soul. there were no drug pushers on the streets, the recent crackdown had almost obliterated them. he looked for suspicious vehicles. none either. he sighed, that meant he had to look for runners. Marco hated runners, he knew his dad was always a runner, and he would never forgive him for turning his best friend- his cousin into a runner. the Prestons were a weird family. that's why Marco changed his name to Peschi. none of the roofs around him revealed any early morning running activity. It wasn't until he began to daydream that he noticed one out of the corner of his scope. the runner was moving fast, like a blur on the rooftops. he jumped incredible distances, making it look easy. the runner made the illegal profession look... artistic.

"What am I thinking?" marco asked himself, as he took aim at the runner, who was allowed to be shot on sight. marco followed the black and white blur around the rooftops. he was an instant away from firing when the runner dissapeared from view. obscured by the very rooftop that marco was perched on. had the runner seen him? was he hiding? sneaking up behind? marco turned around with his rifle at his hip.

from the direction he had been facing, marco felt a bony finger on his shirt.

"Hi cousin!" said isaac, realising he had accidentally snuck up on his cousin, who he thought was waiting to see him. isaac smiled wide

"ISAAC" marco jumped, nearly out of his skin.

"hey, what are you doing up here?" asked isaac

"looking for people like you to arrest" retorted marco, frankly

"you wouldnt arrest your cousin"

"not this time"

"aww thanks. so, you want to come with me to see my old friend jeffi, you know, from back in the day?"

"I remember jeffi" said marco "you always made him (and me) come do parkour with you when we were kids"

"yeah, I miss those days"

"I... actually miss them too"

"well come on, we could go free-running for old times sake" said isaac, his hopes for a reunion were high.

"you know I always hated free running, I just wasn't built for it. and neither was jeffi, he always weighed like... 300 pounds. you need to stop kidding yourself that he's near as good as you and whoever the other delinquents you work for are."

"actually I got promoted, they work for me now"

"good for you cousin"

"well, me and jeffi are going freerunning"

"I'll see you later then."

Isaac hugged marco "bye cousin"

**The Unexpected Saviour**

After completing several assignments, Linda was left with nothing to do. Feeling that she should at least do something productive, she thought she'd visit the prison and interrogate some runners. As she entered the gloomy building, she was greeted by a receptionist who was working vigorously on his computer. He glanced up to see Linda walking towards him and slapped a smile onto his face.  
"Welcome ma'm. Can I help you with anything?" He asked with a slight hint of a British accent.  
"Can you print me a list of the most recent prisoners?" She asked politely. The man nodded and keyed in some commands onto the screen. After a few seconds he presented the runner with a piece of paper containing a list of names.

She skimmed down the list for names she didn't recognize. Most of them she did, for she had sent a few there herself and so had her allies.  
"Stark, Stanley, Straston, Strabson..." She said lazily as she read down the list of last names. She came to a dead stop when her dark eyes fell upon a very familliar name.  
"Strano..." She whispered. She placed a finger on the last name and ran it along the other end of the paper to see the first name.  
"Jacob..." She said out loud to herself. A mass of emotions came flooding into Linda's mind.  
"You finally got caught." She said, receiving an odd look from the man at the desk. He shrugged, assuming she wasn't talking to him and returned to his work. Linda walked briskly along the barren hallways of the prison, looking for Jacob's cell.  
"203, 204, 205... 206. Here we are." She said as she found the cell she was looking for. Between the pearly white metal bars of the cell was a figure slumped against the wall with his head down. He looked tired, and his orange prison suit was drenched with sweat. He'd been interrogated, and by the looks of it, several times.

Linda slowly walked up to the barred door and stared at the figure. He hadn't noticed her yet, and this she was grateful for. For a split second, only a split second, an old emotion that had been buried deep within the darkest chasms of Linda's mind had found its way back into her consciousness. With this emotion came many memories of her and the tired prisoner that sat slumped before her. Memories of the two running along rooftops, stealing from vendors, taking down a couple of muggers. These memories overwhelmed Linda for only a split second. But that was all the time in the world for it to have an effect on her. She quickly pushed the memories out of her head and took a deep breath.

"Prisoner 22343... Jacob Strano." She addressed with a quick and curt voice. The figure lifted his head and stared at Linda with dark hate filled eyes. The two held that gaze for a second, and Jacob's deadpan expression soon morphed into a crooked grin.  
"I was wondering when I'd finally see you." He said in a hoarse voice. Linda stared down at her feet, her emotions slowly rising up again. After another deep breath she stared at Jacob.

"What are you here for? Another interrogation? This is the third time today." Jacob said. Linda looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "This isn't fair." She said, shaking her head. She then reached into her pocket, retrieved a master key and put it into the cell slot. Jacob remained silent as the cell door swung open.  
"What are you doing?" He asked finally as Linda opened the door and stepped aside for him to exit.  
"Just get out and walk with me. Put these on." Linda said in a small voice as she tossed him a pair of hand cuffs. Jacob obeyed and got out of the cell. The two walked down the hallway and to the exit. The man wan no longer at the desk, making the ordeal much easier. To the left of the prison's exit was an elevator. The two entered the small room and Linda hit the roof access button.

"Why are you doing this?" Jacob asked. Linda didn't answer.  
"Answer me, Linda." He said. Linda turned and faced Jacob.  
"Just be happy I'm doing this." She replied. Jacob didn't back down, though.  
"You know what can happen to you if they find out what you're doing. Why are you risking it?"

Linda was getting annoyed at this point. Why couldn't he just be grateful and drop it?  
"Does it matter? You're getting out of prison." She shot back.  
"It matters. You don't owe me anything, why would you go out of your way? It's not like you give a damn about the New November." Jacob said. Linda didn't reply, but gave Jacob all the answers he needed in doing so.  
"It's because of me isn't it?" He asked quietly. "You still care..." Linda shook her head in disagreement.  
"Yes and no...." She said. The elevator door opened, and the sunlight poured into the small space. "I don't want you to die. Not here, not now. You die when I decide it's time, and when I take your life." She said coldly. Jacob saw through the facade, though. Linda removed the cuffs and the two walked to the edge of the building.  
"Sure..." He said "That's why you're doing it." Linda backed away.  
"It is. Now get out of here. We're lucky enough that there are no cameras here, and the camera in the elevator has no audio. Don't get used to this; the next time we meet, we'll be enemies." She said.

Jacob nodded and sighed. "Yeah, sure." He said as he removed the top part of his prison suit, revealing the black t shirt he was wearing underneath. Linda stopped where she was and began to make small rips on her clothes.

"What are you doing?" Jacob asked. Linda bent down and grabbed a hand full of dirt and patted herself down with it.  
"If anyone asks, you escaped. I chased you, and you beat the living crap out of me." She said. Jacob looked at her for a second, and she looked back.  
"Don't think you can pull that off in real life though. I'd destroy you if we really fought." She continued.  
"Tell me about it..." Jacob mumbled as he rubbed his ear which was still sore from the hook she'd given him weeks ago.

"Now get out of here." Linda said. Jacob turned to leave, but ran back to Linda.  
"Hey." He said casually. While she was off guard, Jacob ambushed her with a loving, grateful hug.  
"Thanks." He said softly. Linda was shocked at the sudden action, but she instinctively returned the hug. The two stayed in that position for a moment, embracing each other on top of a prison in the world's worst city. Jacob let go and ran off. Linda watched him go until he disappeared behind the fence of the adjacent building. The sound of the prison bell ringing told her that the guards realized Jacob had escaped. Wasting no time, Linda tossed some more dirt on herself and laid on the ground, making sure Jacob's prison shirt was within a believable distance. It was time for her ability to deceive to come in handy...

**ESCAPED!?!?**

When the alarm went off, Sheena was one of the first to reply. She entered the prison with a bad attitude; she never liked being disturbed. She was told to go to the roof of the building, when she did she saw a small medical team working on a female runner. She looked somewhat familiar with her jet black hair tied in a pony tail, cargo shorts and combat boots. Yes, she had met this woman before.

"Linda Browne?" Sheena asked. The woman stood up.  
"She seems to be in good condition. She claims that she had confronted the escaped prisoner, but he caught her in a sleeper hold." One of the medics said. Sheena nodded and wondered what prisoner could do this. And why leave at the roof?  
"Did you check the footage of the elevator camera?" Sheena asked. The medic shook his head.  
"The camera was destroyed once we got here. The most recent footage we found was three hours prior to this situation. Same with the camera in the lobby." The medic explained. He looked to the ground and presented Sheena with the prison shirt that was found.  
"This was all the prisoner left behind. We already sent a team to investigate the prison to see which prisoner escaped, but this is a big place, it might be a while." The medic said. Sheena looked at the shirt. The number on the back had been scratched off so that it couldn't be read at first glance. Sheena squinted her eyes to see the numbers more clearly.  
"Prisoner 22343..." She said to herself. Her eyes widened in surprise. She knew who that was. How could she have been so stupid? She didn't explain anything to the medic and bolted for the elevator. After several seconds of rapidly pushing the down button the elevator began its rather slow descent back to the building. Once it was at her designated floor she sprinted out, pushing and weaving through the many SWAT guards who were inspecting or interrogating other prisoners. She finally reached cell 206. Her fears had been realized. The runner was no longer there.  
"Damn it!" She yelled. She then pressed the ear peace she was wearing. It soon crackled with static, and the gruff voice of prison's super intendant crackled through.  
"What is it?" He asked.  
"Stop the search, I know who escaped." Sheena replied curtly. She then told him about what she had discovered.  
"Right then... I'll send squads to search the city." He said. Sheena cut him off.  
"No. I'll look for this one myself." She said.  
"May I ask why you would do that?" The super intendant asked.  
"No prisoner of mine ever escaped this place. I've got a reputation to maintain. This bastard's stunt just made it personal." Sheena shot back. She didn't wait for a reply, and killed the channel. With that, Sheena left the prison and scaled the highest skyscraper near her. She wanted the best vantage point in this part of the city. Prisoner 22343, Jacob Strano wasn't going to escape her this time...

**Calling**

Holly had spent a lot of her night out in the streets. It was warm and clear, streets lights provided plenty of light. She suspected it would be hard to sleep, she awaited her next meeting with Isaac eagerly. Though she knew it was only on odd, less preferable occasions she'd be called in the middle of the night, it was hard not for her to expect it. When she found herself simply wandering farther from where she called home, she decided to stop by a gas station and get coffee. It was late enough most other places had closed. Rather than keep herself up all night with a regular, she went for decaf. She left the building. Some skateboarders went past, laughing among themselves, and the night fell silent again. Holly sat down on the ground and leaned on the wall of the building, look a bit like a hobo waiting for a ride. She spent half an hour there, and when her coffee had little more than an inch left, she got up and head home. Holly pulled out her phone and looked at the time. It was now midnight. When she decided that it was time to try and get some sleep, however, it rang.

Holly cleared he throat, "Hello?"

"_Hey . . . It's me Lenne. I was supposed to call you apparently. Supposedly Isaac says he can meet you __anytime?_" Lenette sounded wide awake.

"Oh. . ." Holly glanced at the black sky, "Alright. Tell him 10 in the morning, if that's okay."

"_Should be. Alright I'll call you if anything stupid happens._

"Thanks," After a few arguing 'byes,' Holly hung up. She'd arrived at the NCO hideout and found she still wasn't tired. Rather than spend more time outside, however, she shrugged it off and went to bed.

**Holly?**

Burke had nearly finished a run through town when a familiar brown haired girl yelled for her. She stopped and stared, not remebering the face. The girl finally caught up to her, "Burke! Hi..."

Burke looked really confused, "Hi...? Remind me of who you are please." She took a step away from the person.

"It's me, Holly. Sorry, I haven't been able to contact you guys in a while. I meant to find Isaac, but I haven't seen him around, is he doing alright?"

"Well. Aside from what apparently is minor injuries due to some mystery reason I don't know about, yes." Burke answered, still not quit remembering. Then it hit her, "OH!! I remember you. Okay. Hi."

"Thank you! But when can I see him again?" Holly asked, now a little worried. She'd only been able to imagine what he got up to, and she'd heard complaints from the NCO's.

"That is a good question. Hey, you don't happen to know Lenette Hayes do you?" Burke asked, even though it was highly unlikely.

"Actually, yes I do. Not very well, mind you," Holly replied. Lenette seemed a bit . . . notorious. Not to judge her by her bad driving or rather irritating attitude around strangers, but overall.

"Awesome! Well, we can exchange numbers, and when I contact Isaac I can guarantee I will be contacting her soon and will be able to pass on a message," Burke smiled and searched her bag she was actaully carrying for once for a pen and paper. After a moment of searching she pulled out an old receipt and a pen. "Alrighty, here it is. . . Now I'm gonna tell her you'll call so she doesn't just ignore you. . . And I'll talk to Isaac tonight."

"Thanks a lot," Holly smiled a bit, "It's hard for me to get in contact with anyone lately, it's been a bit hectic this side of town."

"Not a prob, opposite here. I've been spending more time on my butt than on my feet . . . Oh well," Burke laughed, "I'll let you get out of here, maybe expect a call in the morning, or in the middle of the night if Lenne feels the need to bug you. If she doesn't, be sure to call her."

Holly laughed, "Alright. Thanks again." She left, as did Burke.

Burke couldn't help but think Holly's contact wasn't a good idea. She didn't think of her as a bad person, but she knew nothing about her and felt uneasy simply being around her. It was a shame that she couldn't trust such a nice girl, but for some reason there wasn't a thing she could do about it. She went back to base.

**Part Two of Holly?**

"Not a lot is happening nowadays" Kirsten thought. It was long ago she had heard anything from Douglass. Most of the time she spend sneaking arround from roof to roof. She was acturally on her way home, when she heard a familiar voice from the streets. She looked, and saw Holly, speaking with some redhaird girl. Kirsten was almost sure she had seen that girl before. The redhaird found a pen and a small piece of paper from her bag. She wrote something, probbably her phone number. they spoke, Holly laughed, then they got appart from eachother. Kirsten couldnt hear a word from her position on her roof, but she knew, that Holly had made some contact. The redhaird climbed a roof, and disappeared. "A runner? Holly and a NN runner?!"

**The Family?**

Sheena stood in usual spot on top of a skyscraper, scanning the city. It's funny, she always stood in this very spot when on patrol, but she never knew what this building was for. Boredom soon settled itself into Sheena's mind as she looked around the gleaming metropolis. She'd ignored the petty crimes, typical burglaries or suicide attempts. She was waiting for something serious. She was waiting for a runner.

"Where are you..." She wondered. That runner who escaped her had to be active by now. A black dot started to jog along a rooftop in the corner of her eye. She quickly turned to her right to see a figure dressed in black running across a building's roof that was several buildings away from the skyscraper she was standing on.

"You don't look like Jacob Strano..." Sheena said to herself.  
"But maybe you can give me some answers."

Wasting no time, Sheena expertly leaped off of the skyscraper, skill rolling on the lower building near it. She picked up speed quickly, sliding, jumping, flipping, and wall running along the labyrinth of the city. After speed vaulting over a large AC unit, Sheena saw the figure again, heading to two large red cranes. She quickly picked up speed and intercepted the mystery runner at the base of the nearest crane.

The runner didn't notice her at first, so she used her stealth to her advantage. She slowly reached for her tazer and was just about to pull the trigger when the runner did a back flip and kicked it out of her hand. Sheena ducked as he followed up with a swing kick and countered with a sharp uppercut. The runner staggered backwards, and Sheena got a good look at the runner. He wore a shiny leather jacket, and black pants and boots. The jacket was open, showing a red t shirt underneath with a slight hint of some sort of under armor underneath it. The man himself was tanned with long black hair tied in a pony tail. He had small bristles of hair along his upper lip that made the slightest hint of a mustache. His eyes were light brown, and he had a smart smirk on his face.

"How are you this afternoon, mi corizon?" He asked. His accent was fluent, so Sheena assumed he was some sort of Latino.

"Who are you?" Sheena asked. The man laughed and took a step backwards.  
"Why would I tell you anything?" He asked. Sheena didn't reply, but instead charged at him with a fly kick. The man didn't expect this and was hit dead in the chest. Sheena grabbed his left arm and slammed him into the fence that surrounded the red crane.  
"Who are you?" Sheena repeated.  
"Are you with the New November?"

the man laughed again.  
"Those peace loving fools? You make me laugh." He said. This was puzzling. He had all the abilities of a runner, but belonged to neither faction.  
"Are you a member of a runner group?" Sheena asked. The man laughed again.  
"You might say that. But I am no member of the New November. I don't trust those guys... you never know when the might, oh, I don't know... kick you out of a helicopter?"

"what are you talking about?" Sheena asked.  
"Tell me, mi corizon. Do you know of a man named Jacknife?" The man asked.

"Jacknife... he was a former runner that joined up with us during project Icarus." Sheena said out loud. The man let out a sharp grunt, and pushed back against Sheena while she was pondering the name Jacknife. He managed to break free and went into a fighting pose.  
"Yes. Think of me as... a student of his. Him and his little blonde friend."

"Blonde friend?" Sheena repeated. The man didn't answer, but turned around and ran off. Sheena ran after him and made an attempt to leap forward and grab his shoulders. She was successful, but as soon as she got a firm grip on the man, he leaped backwards, forcing her to fall flat on her back and release him. He then put his foot on her chest.

"We've been quiet for a while, but now it's time we made ourselves noticed. We're not the New November, we're not the NCO, and we're not the CPF. We don't want to survive in this city, we want to live. Consider this our formal introduction from The Family, my name is Manuel Perez. We're more powerful than you think, and you _will_ give us what we want." He said. With that he took his foot off of Sheena, and walked backwards.  
"But not yet, mi corizon. In time you will know our demands. but not yet..." He said. He then leaped over the fence, climbed the crane, and leaped to the second one with relative ease. Sheena didn't bother to follow him, though. As she got up, her mind raced with questions. Who was "The Family?" And what did that man mean by Jacknife's "Blonde friend?" This needed to be reported. Sheena didn't know what the future held now, but she was sure something drastic was going to change in this city...

**A New Face in the City**

Bored, and with nothing to do, Jacob decided to go into the city and look around. There wasn't much to do, for everyone always kept to themselves and went to wherever they were going with no emotion. He stuck out like a sore thumb with his casual clothing in a crowd of people in work suits. Pretty soon, the sky mimicked Jacob's mood and it began to rain. Then it began to pour. Jacob briskly jogged to the nearby awning of a cafe. He decided to wait this storm out and head off back to the hideout. As he stood there, another figure came into the cover next to him. Jacob gave a curious glance at the man. He wore a shiny black leather jacket with a red t shirt underneath it. He had matching black pants and black shoes. His skin was tanned and he had a small mustache above his upper lip. He had a golden cross necklace dangling around his neck, dark eyes, and a confident look on his face. The man caught Jacob looking at him and smiled.

"Hola senior. Hoy es un dia bonita, no?" He said happily. Jacob smiled, it was obvious the man was messing with him and expected him not to understand a word of Spanish, like most people in this city.

"Lo siento, pero mi espanol es muy malo. Hablas Ingles?" Jacob replied. The man just laughed in surprise.

"Yes, I do mi amigo. I'm sorry. Sometimes I just get homesick" He replied.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Jacob lied. The man grabbed his cross.  
"I miss my family, but everything happens for a reason, right?" He said as he kissed the necklace and held it up.  
"You're a catholic?" Jacob asked  
"No, Christian. I go to church whenever I can." The man replied.  
"Do you have faith?" He asked. Jacob nodded.  
"Yeah, sure." He lied again, not wanting to get into a debate at the moment.

"Some people hate the rain. To me, it's just a reminder that this city is still somewhat normal." The man said distantly.

"Normal. Sure." Jacob scoffed. The man looked at him.

"You cannot look at the situation with so much pessimism. There is always a silver lining." The man replied. Jacob shrugged as a reply. The two conversed for the entire duration of the storm, laughing and shrugging at each other's comments until the storm finally let up.

"Well, mi amigo, it is time we parted ways." The man said as he extended his hand.  
"Me llamo Manuel Perez." He said. Jacob shook his hand.  
"Jacob." He replied.  
"It was nice meeting you. Hey, who knows? Maybe we'll meet again." He said.

Jacob could have just been acting paranoid, but he was almost certain that Manuel glanced at his earpiece. Why would he do that? Did he know that he was a runner? He knew it was probably just him being paranoid, but he still didn't like those odds.  
"Yes... I am almost certain we will meet again." Manuel said with a smile. Jacob returned the smile and ran off back to the hideout after making sure Manuel was clear out of sight...

**Forbidden Meetings**

Holly sat on a park bench, looking at a newspaper she'd grabbed on the way there. She'd left bright and early when she woke up and couldn't seem to fall asleep again. When it came near 10 am, she coiled up the paper and tossed it, then waited patiently for Isaac to show up.

Isaac left the A/C tower early- not stopping for breakfast. He had a meeting planned, and by no means was he going to miss it. Isaac took the roofs, he didn't mind now that Holly... knew. Isaac quickly arrived at the roof near the park bench where his beloved was sitting and dropped off the building to see her.

Holly looked and smiled, "There you are." She stood up to greet him, "I started to worry about you, having not seen you in a long time and losing contact and all. Lucky I saw Burke, and we happened to know the same girl, who just happened to have a phone so I could get a message to and from you. How are you doing?"

"Great, now that you're here!" Bellowed Isaac, happily.

"That's good to hear, it's been slow for us," Holly pointed out, "Aside from the prison break. I heard he was one of yours, is that correct?"

"Uuh... should I be telling you that...?" asked Isaac. He took another look at Holly and answered himself "Yeah. It was one of mine."

"Ohh, I was just curious. You know me, I'm not going to go telling the rest of them," Holly bit her lower lip, she wanted to ask if they were okay, but even now she was betraying her own group. "How's the rest of the gang? Burke doesn't seem worried about anything, have things been easier?"

"Yeah, we've been great- not much activity lately, actually" said Isaac.

"I see, I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing right now. I guess it's good, huh?" Holly laughed at herself. "Ugh. I couldn't sleep last night, I don't really know why. I guess I let myself worry too much, especially after Lenne called at midnight."

"Don't worry- It's all good. Nothing bad has happened lately around the base, but I'm not usually around the NCO... well... running away from them."

Holly smiled uneasily, "Yeah." She looked at her feet, "It's a good thing I've never been sent after you, at this point I have no clue what I'd do. However, there's no guarantee that won't happen soon. As soon as Doug has decided what he wants to do, I'm probably gonna have to go through with it."

"I sure hope you don't, holly" said Isaac, uneasily.

Holly smiled. "You know for real I'd probably just leave them. I don't know why I'm still there, aside from I do think we need a reform."

"You do whatever you want," said Isaac. "I can't stop you."

Holly laughed just a little. "That's right. And, completely honestly, I'd rather to leave the New City Order than have them capture you."

"Wow," laughed Isaac, comforted by what Holly had just said. "I'm really glad you feel that way."

"Yeah, I hope you feel the same way for me. Though I think your group is much more accepting . . ." Holly said softly, "Burke seems to enjoy having me around, at least from my experience."

"We all love you in the NN- especially me," Isaac laughed.

"That's great to hear. In the NCO, I don't feel close to anyone at all. It feels like everyone is keeping secrets from each other and I'm the third wheel on the wagon in most situations. At times it's a bit hard, but I'm good at keeping myself occupied and can handle it okay."

"I'm sorry to hear that- I wish you didn't feel this way," responded Isaac, lovingly. "But you know that if it gets to be too much, there's always a place for you with the NN." Isaac's tone had changed to serious and protective.

"Thanks a lot. I really appreciate you looking out for me," Holly looked down at her feet, "I've actually never felt this way before. I mean, my history wasn't all that great. I didn't have a hard time like most runners, but being spoiled isn't all that great either."

"I don't really know what it's like- my family life was pretty normal... until I started running" replied Isaac- he too looked at his feet. "I remember skipping class- just for the thrill of getting way up on the roofs and giving it my all- nothing scared me."

Holly smiled. "If there was one thing I actually didn't do it was skip class," She laughed. "Though I don't do much running unless it is necessary."

Tears came to Isaac's eyes as he thought of his childhood- he missed those days. They were a simpler time- there was no NCO- just the good ole insurgents "yeah," was all Isaac managed to mutter.

"I see reminiscing, you silly boy," Holly hugged Isaac. "Things seemed easier then because you were unaware of such crisis caused by the city. Things are still the same, you just have to learn to live with it and change whatever we can."

"Yeah," he said once again. "I guess I'll go then. Someone has probably burned the A/C tower down in my absence, I guess," Isaac began to get up.

Holly smirked, a spur of the moment emotion hitting her, she decided now was the best time for their first kiss.

Isaac was stunned- he had to keep his cool, however, so he simply smiled, waved goodbye, and when he was sure holly could no longer see him, let his jaw drop again and stumbled toward the A/C tower.

**A Betrayel**

It had been nearly a month since Linda busted Jacob out of prison. Since then, she had been bombarded day in and day out with questions as to how he escaped. She stuck to her story, though. She chased him as he tried to escape, the two scuffled, and he caught her in a sleeper hold. After constant interrogations and turning up with nothing each time, the CPF decided to give up on the case and let things be. From what Linda heard, there was still one agent who wanted to take Jacob down.

Sheena Teiwaz was there the day he escaped. She had brought him in personally, and she had a reputation for bringing in thugs and not letting them leave. She wanted to maintain that reputation. Linda slowly ignored the entire thing and resumed life as an NCO runner once more. That is, until today. Today, Sheena was doing some investigation on a new runner organization called "The Family." She was told to look into the New November first to see if they had any ties to The Family. Linda was sent to aid her.

"Hope you can keep up with me." Sheen said with a smart smirk. Linda was right on her tail as they followed what was presumed to be a route of the New November. Linda just hoped that she wouldn't run into Jacob. She had no particular care for the New November itself, and actually wished they didn't exist. But Jacob was important to her, and many things would be compromised if she had to face off against him now. Sheena was hoping for the opposite, she wanted to run into that runner and take him down. He wasn't going to get away from her a second time if she saw him.

The two sprinted, jumped, and rolled along the route with very little communication. They had scanned every bit of the route they could see, and went through it backwards just to be sure, but turned it up with nothing. On their third round, Sheena noticed a figure leaping across some rooftops.  
"Come on, I think I found a runner." Sheena said to Linda. The two scaled up several buildings to be on the same level as the runner. When they caught a glimpse of the runner, they both gasped. Linda gasped in fear, and Sheena gasped in surprise. It was her target. It was Jacob. He was on a job apparently, being that he had the trademark neon yellow bag with him.  
"Perfect." Sheena said as she picked up speed. Linda was right behind her, not sure of what she should do.

Sheena wanted to take him down with dignity, and refrained from using her tazer. Instead, she called out to him.  
"Stop, Runner, you are under arrest!" She yelled when she got close enough. Jacob spun around to see two women he really didn't want to see.  
"Oh, wonderful." He said pessimistically.  
"You're not getting away this time." Sheena said. She then turned to Linda.  
"Stay out of this unless I tell you to intervene." She whispered. Linda had no problem obeying. Jacob heard the comment and understood that Sheena was taking on him herself. Thinking this must be some sportsman like thing, he took off his bag, and removed his pistol and placed them aside. Sheena wasted no time and charged at Jacob at full speed. The runner didn't see it coming and took a full forward fly kick to the chest. He was sent flying backwards and fell flat on his back.

Sheena didn't let up, though. As soon as Jacob was on his feet, she was bombarding him with a flurry of punches and kicks. Jacob was barely able to defend himself, but still managed. After several moments of blocking numerous hits, Jacob saw an opening. Sheena was going to finish him with a right hook, but he caught her arm and countered with a hard right snap kick in the stomach. Sheena slid backwards and clutched her stomach, winded. Jacob rushed forward and kneed her in the face, forcing her to fall on her back. Sheena recovered quickly, rolled backwards, and kicked both her legs up, hitting Jacob in the chin. For a split second, she was standing on her hands, and she gracefully placed her feet down on the ground.

Jacob ducked as she preformed a swing kick, and tackled her down to the ground. Sheena quickly punched him in the face while her arm was still free. Jacob stumbled backwards, and Sheena kicked him twice in the chest. He fell on his back, but spring right back up. Jacob blocked several more punches and countered with a right uppercut, which Sheena blocked and countered with a right hook. Jacob tried to weaved away, but was still hit in the jaw. He absorbed the hit and preformed the same attack, which caught Sheena in her temple. Jacob followed through with a hard front kick to Sheena's stomach. She was doubled over in pain, and Jacob continued the combo by hitting her chin with the same leg. Sheena stumbled backwards, dazed, but still determined.

Jacob swing kicked Sheena, but she managed to catch his foot and sweep it away. while Jacob was standing on one foot, Sheena quickly sweep kicked him and caused him to fall on the hard marble floor; hard. Sheena then looked to see Jacob was on his stomach, trying to get up. She quickly lifted her foot and stomped on his back. He yelled in pain, his strained voice echoing into the skies. He was hardly conscious, she must have stomped hard enough on his spine to stun him. He could still feel his body parts, so he was sure he wasn't paralyzed, but he was sure Sheena would keep going until he was. Jacob looked around, desperately searching for something that could help. His gun was too far away, and there was nothing he could find. In a last ditch effort, he looked to Linda, and extended his left arm towards her, the only thing he could do at the moment to signify that he needed help. Sheena continued to stomp on his back, but he was too dazed to yell out in pain.

Linda was unsure of what she should do. She had to help Jacob, but was she willing to endanger her own life? She soon stopped thinking this way when she thought about what Jacob would do in her situation. She knew that he would throw his life on the line to save hers in a heartbeat. Acting quickly before she could talk herself out of it, Linda sprinted forward, picking up as much speed as she can, and hit Sheena with a full on shoulder bash. The CPF officer was forced to the ground and stop her assault on Jacob's back.

"You..." Sheena said as she got up.  
"Me." Linda replied sternly. Sheena charged at Linda and attempted to strike her face. Linda caught the blow and elbowed Sheena in the stomach. Sheena, who was already dazed from her fight with Jacob took the blow harder than normally. While she was stunned, Linda spun around and trusted her left foot into Sheena's stomach, forcing her to go farther backwards. Linda then charged at Sheena and smashed her fist into her head. Sheena was at this point out of it, and fell to the ground. Jacob stumbled to his feet and bent backwards, cracking the bones in his lower back.

"Ahh... you were always a better fighter than I was." Jacob said. Linda smiled.  
"That's true. Well, looks like I'm going to have to disappear." Linda said.  
"You're more than welcome to come with is in the New November." Jacob offered. Linda shook her head.

"I appreciate it, really, I do. But I just don't think you guys are the right thing for me. I think it'll just be best if I laid low for now... and look at it this way." Linda embraced Jacob in a hug.  
"Now we don't have a reason to beat the crap out of each other." She said. Jacob smiled and stepped away.  
"Take care of yourself..." He said. Linda smiled and gave him a thumbs-up, something she used to do when the two were kids. With that, she sprinted off. Jacob was about to leave too, when he noticed Sheena's unconscious body. Cursing his morality, he gathered his things, picked her up, and rushed her to a hospital...

**Pit Stop**

Burke left the hideout bright and early to join Lenette on a hunt for various auto accessories. Lenette had been planning to wax her car again for a while but hadn't got around to it until now. Burke thought it was funny how much money went into the looks of her car, it seemed Lenette was always up to something expensive and shiney. They had only driven ten minutes when Burke pointed out someone seemed to have broken down and was staring at his car as if it would magically come back to life if he begged it.

"That doesn't look too good," Lenette pulled up, "Hey, you need some help?"

Manuel looked at the two women in the car that had pulled up to him. He had stolen this car from a passing by civillian, but unfortunately wasn't too skilled in hotwiring. He must have messed something up and caused the engine to blow out. None the less, it seemed that the two women didn't realize what he'd done, it was best to play with it.  
"Not unless you can fix a blown engine..." He said, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

"Oh? Well, do you know where your problem is? I might be able to. . ." Lenette pointed out, "How old is the car? If it's as new as it looks it shouldn't be doing that."

Manuel had to think on his feet, he had little to no idea about cars. He looked at the car and saw the hood was slightly dented.  
"This car is relatively new, si. But I hit a tree a few weeks ago and decided not to do anything. I guess I should've had it checked out..." He said sheepishly.

Lenette bit her lip, "I see." The story sounded a bit cheesy, so she decided to go for suggestions. "Did you call an auto-repairsmen yet?"

Manuel swore in his mind. This girl just wouldn't give up. Still, he had to maintain an aura of casuality.  
"Tch, I wouldn't trust those guys with my toaster. I called them before about a loose tire, I was on hold for a half hour. I hung up and fixed it myself with a screw gun..." He said, hoping his excuse would hold.

"Alright, well. If you can fix it better than the dealers, why aren't you able to now?" Lennette smirked, "I think they'd at least be able to locate the problem."

Manuel paused to think for a moment, and countered the girl's call-out.  
"I would, but it seems to be some engine trouble. I did what I could but I'm not a wiz on these things. I'dve called the company by now in a last ditch effort, but I left my cell at home. And even if I had a phone on me, I don't memorize the number by heart." He said, satisfied at his iprovisational excuse.  
"Do you think you could take a look at it?" He asked.

"Sir, it seems I have a phone, and a number," Lenette gave him a look. "But I guess if you really insist I can look." She opened up the hood, and after a while of searching the engine, she turned to Manuel, "The engine looks fine to me, anything else you think is doing it? Gimme the keys, I'll see if I can tell by starting it up."

"Sure." Manuel said confidently as he reached into his pocket. He kept his had in there, then took it out to reveal nothing. He checked his other pocket. Nothing, he went into his jacket pocket. Nothing.  
"Damn." He said in a panicked tone. He frantically patted himself down, desperately searching for his key.  
"I just had them! Where the hell did they-- Oh, thank god." He said as he looked in his inner jacket pocket. Luckily, Manuel had taken the keys from the previous owner of the car. He pulled the keys out, being careful not to reveal the ski mask he had in his pocket as well, and handed them to the girl.

Lenette hopped in the front seat and turned the key, and nothing happen. "Lost a connection. . . Something strange is going on here," She tried again, still nothing. "Feels like the power connection is gone, how did you do that?"

Manuel sighed in relief. He had thought about what he'd say after this.  
"Well, a few days ago, some jackass tried to steal this car. He managed to bash the window open, and I came outside to see him fiddling with something inside my car. He saw me and ran. I looked into the car to see nothing was stolen, so I was thinking he was trying to hotwire it. I saw some wires sticking out, but they didn't look damaged and the car still worked at the time so I just thought the only thing that needed to be fixed about the car would be the window." He explained. Technically, he wasn't really lying. The car technically was hijacked. He just had to hope this girl would believe it.

"I see," Lenette stood up, "Well, I can't help you anymore. I'll leave it up to you if you want to call the dealers or wait for someone else, but I can't do anything else." She started to get uneasy with his stories. "Sorry, man."

Manuel silently thanked God that she stopped pressing the issue. His story was sloppy, and full of holes, but it seemed that the girl had better things to do.  
"I see, well thank you for trying." He said politely.  
"I'll just find a nearby payphone and try to remember the number." He said as he waved her goodbye.  
"Who knows? Perhaps our paths shall meet again sometime in the future."

"Sure thing, hope it works out for ya," Lenette hopped back in her car and head off.

**Another Betrayel**

**(just go to the next page :D)**

Holly found herself out at 5 in the morning carrying a manila folder for a man named Edward Godard. The building she needed to get to was Simbol, inc. Right now she stood on a slightly lower one, getting to the randezvous point her tracker had her start. Rather than her usual tidy attire, she wore a baggyish t-shirt, black cargos, and jikatabi running shoes. She bit her lip, she was having trouble listening to her team at the moment, knowing some of the permits Forn was requesting weren't exactly... agreeable. Before she stood in one spot too long waiting to be caught, she ran off the edge, catching onto a zipline and ended up on the lower level of the Simbol building. She made her way around the outside to try and find the office she'd be looking for. However, instead she was met by another runner.

"Holly, it's me Ethan," the boy walked up to her. "I was told to take that from you, Doug wanted me to deliver it."

Holly looked confused, "Why? I was sent out this morning. . . Oh it's okay." She handed him the folder, feeling a bit awkward, her team was starting not to trust her, and they had a reason.

Isaac left the A/C tower early in the morning- he was trying to get to the shard to see if he could steal the security camera tapes that may have compromising footage on them- he knew the quickest path was to skirt on the wide ledge along the outside of simbol. inc- he did so- using all his weight to keep his back to the wall, looking down the whole way. As soon as he reached the corner, he leaped sideways off the edge of the simbol inc building and fell 25 feet to a large, low roof- the multi floor, newly constructed rec-center. it wasnt long after he began to run that he spotted 2 runners up ahead on a roof just across the street. Isaac bolted, his step count and distance were perfect, and he cleared the 25 foot gap in a text-book fashion. He slowed down, nearing the runners, and called out to them- "HEY GUYS!"

Holly squeaked and Ethan looked, "You know that guy?" He asked, he smirked when Holly shook her head. "He must be your new friend... huh?"

"Hey, what's up!" Isaac shouted, not 40 feet from the runners, not recognising holly in her non-businesslike clothing. "You guys up here running!!?" he yelled as he inched ever closer- then he recognised Holly, not using his better judgement, he called to her- "HOLLY!!" he yelled "You see that awesome jump?"

Holly bit her lip and looked at her feet, then at Ethan. "I was right!? You're getting worse Holly, Doug is going to literally kill you! Heaven knows how much treason you're committing!"

Holly knew he wouldn't listen if she told him otherwise, "Isaac, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Ethan faced Isaac, "Think you're gonna use our little Holly to defeat the NCO, do you? Well, I don't feel like letting that happen today. Turn away now and don't see us again, or I'll have to hurt you."

"Hey, brother" said Isaac, thinking it was a joke. "I mean no trouble- me and holly are friends."

Holly felt a bit dizzy, "Isaac! What is wrong with you!?"

"You gotta be kidding me, Holly, hanging out with a guy this idiotic. Well, maybe I shouldn't worry, he doesn't know how to work a system anyway. I bet he doesn't even know you're NCO." Ethan shook his head, "Girl, you must be blind if you see anything in this kid."

"Stop! Isaac, go now. . ." Holly looked horrified, realizing her cover was already blown. She'd have to leave the NCO if she wanted to live.

"I'm the tracker for the NN, friend" said Isaac, holding out his hand. "I work the computers and stuff, but I come out and run sometimes- It's nice to see other people do the same."

"ISAAC! Are you STUPID?" Holly cried, and Ethan laughed.

"Yah, he's pretty stupid," Ethan whacked the hand away. "So, Mr. Isaac, what makes you think you can come up to a New City Order runner if you are New November and shake hands and say everything is cool? How about we all sit around and have a cup of tea while we're all here? I'm sure Holly would agree!"

"Whoa, sorry, man," said Isaac, shocked at Ethans gesture of disrespect. "I knew holly was NCO, but I thought you were just a friend- what do you say I get you a coffee and you dont skin me alive?"

"You are a joke! How about I skin you alive and save the coffee for later?" Ethan said, stepping towards Isaac. Well, I'm afraid it's an order from Doug to catch any NN's I happen to find in the streets, I'm hope you're a good runner!" He threw the first punch, Holly stared in horror.

Isaac reared back in pain, and fell to the floor. "Ouch!" he yelled finally, blood smeared on his face. "Why'd you do that?" Isaac asked, getting back up. "Violence doesn't solve anything!"

"Well, maybe you should try hitting back!" Ethan yelled, "And you're the NN tracker! We could use a guy like you as a captive!"

"I'm a pacifist, and I wont tell you anything if you capture me" said Isaac, all in one long word. Gulping and squinting his eyes, his hands up in an awkward blocking position. He was preparing for the next punch.

Ethan laughed, "You're more pathetic than I expected. Well, if you'll just take my hand I could you to your cell!" He hit Isaac a few times just to toss him around.

"Just stop it!" Holly cried out finally, "Ethan, it's not worth it!"

Isaac lay on the floor in a puddle of his own blood, coughing- "yeah, what she said" he mumbled, practically spitting his teeth out.

Ethan kept a smile on his face and turned to Holly, "It's a shame really. I kinda like you," He walked up to her, standing uncomfortably close, "it's sad to know one of us will have to put you out of your misery."

Holly narrowed her eyes, "Maybe I have a right to betray you!" Holly hit Ethan in the stomach, right under the ribs, and he looked shocked before he fell unconscious. "Sorry about that, you kinda deserved it though," She quickly threw Isaac over her shoulder and fled, dialing Lenette. "Need a ride! See you on the corner by the coffee shop!"

"Hell yeah! I'm nearly there right now!" Lenette hollared through the phone.

"Alright, be prepared for trouble," Holly sighed, she was nearly there when she saw the speeding car pull up. She made her way over to it as quickly as possible.

"Why do you guys call me when you get into bloody messes? I always gotta clean my car after... ah well get in, double time!" Lenette got out to help drag Isaac into the car.

"Thanks guys" Isaac mumbled and passed out.

Lenette kept a cruising speed towards her house to keep herself from being pulled over, just in case. Rather than parking by the alley like she would on a normal occasion, she pulled in behind her part apartment so they would be able to take Isaac in without any questions from people passing by. It didn't take long to get everybody in and Burke tended to Isaac's wounds. Lenette left to clean her car.

Burke sat up, "Well, he should be waking up soon. I dunno when, that's kinda up to him." She said to Holly, then went over and sat beside her when she noticed she was crying. "Hey, he's okay now."

"I know, but he wouldn't have even been in this situation if I hadn't been caught seeing him," Holly breathed heavily, "I'm so bad with this! And now the NCO will be after me for betraying them. I've totally messed things up."

"Hey, it could be worse!" Burke smiled, "Things are going to be okay. You could hang out with us, I'm sure Isaac wouldn't mind." She put an arm over Holly, "It's alright."

Holly nodded, "Thanks." She didn't feel any better, but she didn't want Burke to sit there forever to try and comfort her.

Lenette returned, "Oi, guys. You jus' don't know when to quit, do ya?" She sat down beside Burke and dragged her onto her lap. "At least you don't go getting yourself beat up all the time, I'd have to beat you up for doing such things!"

Burke laughed a bit, "It's okay, I don't have a reputation... yet." She looked when Holly got up and sat next to Isaac on the fold out bed, then glanced at Lenette.

"Leave her alone, she just needs to rest a bit," Lenette whispered to Burke. "She'll be fine."

Isaac's eyes opened in a room he had not been in before, he ached all over, and didn't want to sit up. He sat up and looked around and rubbed his head. No one was in the room. Had he been captured, had he been killed and was in heaven, was he still out cold? All questions he didn't have an answer to, so he yelled aloud, "Anyone??!!"

Holly entered the room quickly. "Isaac! Sorry, I was just getting some tea. . . How do you feel?"

"Don't apologize," said Isaac, "I still remember you punching that guy who beat me up, now I'm here. Where am I? I'm glad you're here."

"You are in Lenette's house, surely you remember her," Holly smiled weakly. "She's upstairs, so is Burke. They got bored waiting for you to wake up," She teased.

"Oh, well I feel fine now that you're in the room with me. I was scared there, for a second," grumbled Isaac, obviously, he was in pain. "What should I do now?"

"Rest," Holly laughed. "You don't look fine. Do you want me to get you some tea? I was only half done making mine anyway."

"Naah," Isaac said incoherently, "Just wake me up when it's time to go home," said Isaac, and he dosed off with the lights still on.

**Uncovered Feelings**

Jacob tossed the bag to the client as usual, and ran off with a bored sigh. It had been weeks since he'd last seen Linda. Without her chasing him down and doing her NCO thing, the Runner jobs started to gradually get more and more boring. In a desperate attempt to stir some things up, Jacob decided to go down to the streets and see if his awkward clothing would catch a few eyes. He quickly strode along the sidewalks, muting his earpiece to avoid the complaining of his tracker, Isaac on how he's moving relatively slow.

He walked along all the routes he took when he was young and homeless. He'd steal from stores, and fish in garbage cans for food, and meet up with the gang to combine their findings. It was an old lifestyle that he missed in an odd way. Joining the Runners was definitely a great turn around for his nomadic childhood, but he always felt a pang of guilt. He promised to return to his gang one day, but now he's not even sure if they're even still alive. Jacob stopped at the alley of the building with the green pole. The old hideout that was full of empty boxes and garbage cans. A makeshift boarding house for kids. Jacob laughed to himself, it was as if it had never been touched since he left. He walked up to the setup. It looked smaller than he remembered, probably because he grew taller.

"Hey." Came a low, almost sad female voice. Jacob spun around to see a woman standing in front of him. Her hair was down to her shoulders, and had a red-brown look to it. She had hazel green eyes and a confident smirk. She was wearing baggy black jeans, and a rather large brown thermal long sleeve shirt. The tips of combat boots peeked out from underneath the folds of her jeans. It was a convincing disguise, but Jacob knew who it was.

"Hey, what's your name now?" He asked Linda, who must've changed her name by now.

"Kelly Fitzpatrick." She said kindly. Jacob nodded, understanding that the name was an inside joke from the time Linda got caught stealing from a store. When the clerk asked her name, she said Kelly Fitzpatrick, thinking up a random name on the spot.

"How've you been?" Jacob asked. Kelly shrugged.  
"Alright I suppose. I got a small house right across from this alley."She said as she pointed to the small door.  
"Really small, but I wanted it for sentimental reasons. The landlord didn't even ask any questions." She explained. Jacob nodded, and Kelly stared at him for a while.  
"Are you on a job?" she asked. Jacob shook his head.  
"Just finished." He replied.  
"Why don't you come on in and we can talk over tea or something." She suggested. Seeing no harm in it, Jacob agreed, and the two walked into the small apartment that seemed to be made up of one bedroom, and a large living room/kitchen. There was also a small door that Jacob assumed was the bathroom.  
"Nice place." Jacob said. Kelly smiled at his sarcasm. Kelly walked into the "kitchen" and opened the fridge to pull out two large cans of iced tea. She handed one to Jacob and sat at the table in the center of the room.

"The best part is that since this is such a small living space, the surveillance is way less secure. Only one camera." Kelly said as she gestured to a coat rack next to the entrance that was most likely covering the camera. It would be months before the city realized that she was obscuring the camera, since it was such a small building. It would probably take months for them to notice.

"Remember back when we were with the gang?" She asked as she took a shallow sip of her tea. Jacob nodded, feeling that Kelly was reading his mind.  
"Everything there was so much more simple..." she continued.  
_Yeah, when we were a couple, and you didn't try to kick the crap out of me._ Jacob thought.  
"You were always such a pessimist then. You still are. Why are you always so stressed?" Kelly asked curiously. Jacob scoffed.  
"Is there anything in this city _not_ to be stressed about?" He asked. Kelly nodded in agreement. She got up and walked over to the couch that was to the right of the table and turned on the radio (She lacked a television) The song "Castles Made of Sand" by Jimi Hendrix silently played as Jacob joined her at the couch.

"Even though this place is stressful, I still saw it as a home that needed to be fixed. I guess that's why I joined the NCO..." Kelly said distantly.  
"We sure share different views." Jacob replied.  
"Shared." Kelly corrected. Jacob cocked an eyebrow.  
"What do you mean?" He asked. Kelly turned and looked at him dead in the eyes.  
"How's your eye?" She asked, changing the subject. Jacob shrugged.  
"Still blurry... hurts when I read." He said. "I'm starting to get used to it though."

Kelly nodded.  
"Wish I'd been there when it happened, I could've stopped it." She said. Jacob shook his head.  
"Not really, I kinda brought it upon myself." He said as he traced his two scars.  
"What did you mean about how we 'shared' different views?" Jacob asked, remembering the subject Kelly so hastily changed. Kelly looked at the radio, then back to Jacob.  
"I think I'm starting to lean more towards the New November now." She said. She then noticed Jacob's change in body language.  
"Don't get any crazy thoughts, I think I'm going to take a good long break from running all together. But you've got my support." she said.

"Thanks." Jacob said calmly. "That means a lot." he said.  
"Sorry about kicking your ass all those times." Kelly said playfully. Jacob smiled.  
"No problem. It was a good motivator." he said.  
"What do you mean?" Kelly asked.  
"After that right hook to the ear you gave me, I thought that I should brush up on my hand to hand. I didn't think I should let myself get beat by a female." He explained. Kelly slugged him in the arm. She remembered Jacob always being somewhat sexist. He was also chivalrous, one of the qualities that attracted her to him.

"I'm not gonna lie, though. Sometimes it feels like we're fighting a losing battle." Jacob said as he finished off his tea. Kelly nodded.  
"Yeah, PKs can be a real pain." Kelly said. Jacob shook his head.  
"It's not just that, it's the people. There are conspiracies that the New November is actually a terrorist organization bent on world domination. The people hate us, and we're trying to save them. You've got no idea how frustrating that gets. And then there's this talk of another runner group. They'll probably make us look even worse than we do now." Jacob ranted.

"Hey, if there's one thing I've always known about you, it's that you can handle stress well. " Kelly said cheerfully.  
"And I'll help in any way I can."  
Jacob nodded in thanks. The entire time the two had been talking, they both knew that they were beating around the bush. The two had broken up when Jacob left to find the Runners. And when they reunited, they did so as enemies. Their relationship was a very odd one, no doubt. But both knew that they still cared deeply for each other. This small talk was a sign of how it existed, but neither wanted to admit so. And then, in an instant, Kelly shattered her wall of stubbornness and broke the cycle of meaningless talk.

"Jacob, be careful." She said softly. Jacob simply nodded, staring at the radio as Hendrix's song reached the final chorus.  
_And so castles... made of sand... slips into the sea... eventually_  
"Look at me, Jacob." Kelly commanded. Jacob obeyed, and stared at her.  
"You know how much you mean to me. I don't know what I'd do if I found out something happened to you." She said. Jacob simply nodded.  
"Same here." He said.  
"Listen, if you need a place to stay, or somewhere to hide, the New November will accept you." Jacob said. Kelly smiled.  
"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. The same offer stands here. I don't have a lot, but I'll help you in any way I can." She replied. Jacob felt his earpiece vibrate. Isaac must've been trying to contact him.

"I gotta go. Work to do, stress to endure, you know. The usual." Jacob said as he headed for the door. One had grabbed the knob, the other was suddenly grabbed by Kelly.  
"Jacob." She said sincerely. Jacob turned to see that she had a warm smile on instead of her usual cocky smirk. And for that split second, Jacob was once again reminded about how he felt for this woman. He knew that in this city where nobody gave a crap about anything, there would always be this amazing person who would give a crap about him. His reassuring feelings were re-enforced when three words escaped Kelly's mouth. He heard it, but he didn't at the same time. He hadn't herd those words in a while, especially from her. They were all one syllable words, but they carried so much meaning, especially in Jacob's case.

"I love you."

The two then embraced, neither wishing to let go, wanting this moment to last forever, never being interrupted. Nobody pulling them out. Nothing in the world existed except for these two souls. Both had been through so much, and lived off of each other's energy. It was a mutual feeling of love that bonded these two together. And even if they hardly admitted it, they both knew these feelings existed.

Jacob stayed with LINDA that night...

**In the Fields**

James had finaly ben allowed to move from his desk, and begin patroling again. He was happy about being in the field again. He ran to some buildings, near the CPF headquarters, where he made some wallscales, wallruns, coil-jumps, wall-flips, long jumps and skill rolls, and a lot of other moves, just to get the hang of it again. The last month he hadn't been in the field, and had only runned to and from work, and whenever he was out in spare time. Running with the PK pursiut armor he hadn't done once since last month.

James practiced pulling and aiming the tazer fast. After half an hour of training running and pulling tazers, he began to run around in the area.

A month ago, when he was moved to do desktop-work, there was not much activity. The NCO had allied with the CPF, and the NN was laying low. NN still wasn't a big problem, but the alliance with NCO was breaking up. A prissonor had escaped, and 2 of the best NCO members had dissapeared, one of them was wanted for releasing the prisonor. The prisonor was NN, so the NN was still alive, still doing criminal things.

The fact the NN was still there didn't realy bother James. They sure did make the jobs hard for the CPF, as they made it possible to contact people without CPF notice, and if they wherent there, CPF might easier be able to catch diffrent cirminals, but for James, and many other PKs, they where beginning to be just a part of the everyday work. What bothered James was the unknown. The new gang.

"The familly"; they wheren't NCO, they woren't NN. First time James heard about them, was when Sheena was attacked. Acturally he hadn't heard of them since, but he still couldn't forget them. They didn't apear to be a threat, and as they hadn't ben seen since, the CPF had delecleard it prioritirized with lowest possible priority. But they where there. James knew Sheena wouldn't lie. He knew they exicted, and he knew they would become a pest.

The first patrol in the field didn't yield any ressult, but James had had time to think things through. He couldn't release a thought though: was the release of the imprissoned NN runner related to "the family"? James concluded, that to find out more, he would need to find out what the NN knew. "Problem is; how do you contact the group in the city, who has the most experience in avoiding you?" James thought. "There must be a way to contact them"

**Answers? Well... maybe**

The next day, James patrolled an area with high activity. He had specifically chosen this neighborhood, because of the high possibility to catch a runner. He took an elevator the roof of a high building, and standing there he scanned the area for 10 minutes. Then he decided to go run around, and hope to hit someone.

Isaac, half asleep sat on a rooftop drinking a bottle of his favorite cherry cola. bit his nails, as if nervous. the city was glistening as usual this morning. he hardly took the time to notice, however. he took the last sip of his cola, and threw the glass bottle at a campaign billboard. he started toward the hideout, the Bright sun making him squint.

James jumped to the tallest of the nearby buildings, 3 stairs lower than the one he stood on. Right before hitting the hard concrete, he rolled, forcing the momentum forward, instead of breaking his bones. The roll got him up on his legs, and he kept a high speed. At the end of the building he jumped, and grabbed a power-line, and slid down it. Near its end he released the power-line he released his grip, and fell into some boxes, wrapped with a white tarpaulin, which made a loud sound, but softened his landing

Isaac was too groggy to run, so he took the easy way, he sat down on the ledge of his building, and pushed off. he fell 35 feet into the alley, into a pile of empty boxes. he got up, unharmed and walked to the sidewalk- pretending to be a law abiding citizen who lost his way. he walked into the building next to the alley and took the elevator to the to the continued to walk. he reached the ledge of the rooftop, not 8 feet away was anther. instead of going all the way back down, and taking the elevator all the way back up, he brought his arms back, crouched, and then leaped from his stationary position, bringing is arms front, and coiling his legs up. he cleared the gap, but landed shakily, making him trip on a cable. he fell foreward, and landed on a lower part of the roof, right next to some boxes wrapped in tarpaulin.

"What have we here?" James said, as he saw not just a runner, but the head tracker of the New November. James pulled his tazer, and amied at Isaac. "Now don't do anything stupid. If you try to run, ill send 100,000 volts through your bodey, causing your nerves to malfunction, and your muscles to tighten. I know how painfull it is, they sap us with these things before we are allowed to use them"

"uh huh" isaac yawned. he got up slowly, and began to back up as if about to run like usual. it was then that he realized that a police officer had him in his sights. isaac blinked a few times, wiped his eyes and then put his hands halfway up.

"Wake up Isaac!" James said, still aiming the tazer at Isaac. "See I have some questions, and I think you might just be the person who can enlighten me. So tell me, want to answer me now and here? or do you want me to taze you, and drag you to the police staition first? your call"

"Screw you, james- you know I can outrun you- and your tazer... well maybe not the tazer." said isaac, jokingly "what do you want to know?"

"Bragging, even when you are on the wrong side of the weapon huh?" James replied in a cool voice "You haven't changed a bit. I wan't to know how your runner escaped the prisson. Don't lie to me, I know you guys got him out."

"_I_ didn't, I don't know about the others. It's doubtful, though- they were all on jobs and I know that said runner is pretty bad-ass."

"So? well I also want to know if you got any new members recently. Im talking about a former NCO girl named Holly. Rumours have shes your girlfreind? and also another former NCO called Linda Browne. Both where high in the NCO, and have suddenly dissappeared"

"a true gentleman doesn't kiss and tell," repied isaac, who didn't understand why he was asking these questions, or who linda browne was. "I can neither confirm nor deny relationships between the NN and these two NCOs"

"You are forgetting where you are standig. If you answer to my questions, I might let you go, and not just turn you in to the CPF. Tell me, do you, or do you not know where Holly and Linda are hiding?"

"the caffiene from my soda is kicking in- I may have the energy to run now- let me tell you- I dont know who linda is, and holly is none of your business." said isaac, matter of factly. "Is that all, or are you going to hassle me more?"

"hmm, oh wait almost forgot. What do you know about some group called "The familly"?"

"I read about them in the news paper- other than that article (which probably didn't expose even 1/3 of what the city really knows) I know nothing"

"So they have no relation to you what soever? You are not very informing, I thought you had yor connections here in this city, but you just don't know anything. You are as useless as I remember you" James said, and turned the safety on the tazer-gun. "Now go"

"I told you only what I think you deserve to know," isaac said "The family is not the NN"

James aproached Isaac, then rapidly he pulled the tazer again, and fired.

Isaac expected this, so he dodged left and began running. he bolted across this roof, and leaped to a pipe across the 1 lane street. he jumped from the pipe to a ledge across an alley, and started to run. he hopped a fence, and after about 20 more steps, came to a small indent in the wall where a maintenance door was- he leaped off of his back foot, planted his front foot on the wall above the door, and pushed off. he grabbed a balcony of a hotel room and swung himself up, he then hopped onto the rail and jumped up to a flag pole about 16 feet up. he swung back and fourth on it until he had enough momentum to make it to anything that would support him. he swung one last time, and jumped when he got as high as he was going to go. he brought his legs up and kicked them down to keep his momentum in the air, and stabilize himself to land feet first on the flag pole about 12 feet away- he knew james could NEVER take this route, he wasnt skilled enough- so isaac exploited that and kept on. without stopping on the flagpole, he used his remaining momentum and powerful leg muscles to leap onto a water spout, and swing off it, providing him enough speed, he wall ran about 25 feet, grabbed, and 360-spun across 30 feet of pipes, hopped across the alley,and tic-tacked back across. he grabbed a tiny window ledge. isaac pulled himself up sideways, got 1 good, firm footplant on the wall with the momentum he had and cleared the living-rooms distance to the same campaign billboard that he had threw his soda bottle at.

James didn't expect to hit with the tazer, and already before he began chatting with Isaac, he knew he would try to get rid of him. That was why he had taken this early version of "third eye" with him. The Fanserone chip had already identifyed Isaac through the long conversation, and James was able to know where Isaac was heading. Though James could not take the same routes as Isaac, he was able to folow him through other routes, and Third eye made it possible to keep track of Isaac. As the system had yet to be improved, Isaac was most of the time not shown on the eyepatch James had flipped down, but now and then he passed one of the few cameras that had the chip installed. James catched up on Isaac. Now he could see him again, but Isaac would expect him to have been lost earlier. He flipped away the eyepatch, and survaied Isaac

Isaac looked left and right for a place to hide, but he couldnt find one. he just decided he would have to escape from james on the way back to his hideout. isaac walscaled 13 feet on his left, and hopped across the alley to his right. Isaac began climbing the windows and window-sills; pipes and ledges- vertically scaling the building assassins creed style. he reached the top and jumped across the building to the other building, just to throw james off. isaac ran full speed across the roof, kicking up the little dust that there was- roofs were usually swept clean. when Isaac reached the edge, he leaped with all his might, he _knew_ james couldnt make this- nor would he try. Isaac was certain he had lost him- he was the only one in the city who could clear the 12.5 meter gap across that street. isaac laughed, thinking he had finally outdone james and jogged non-chalantly home. once he reached his roof, he surveyed the city, james was no where to be found. isaac dusted himself off and began to walk toward the AC tower.

James saw how Isaac cleared the huge jump, and flipped down the eyepatch again. He tracked Isaac same way as before, finding an alternat route, only possible cause he knew where to find Isaac. Reached the building where Isaac was last seen by a updated camera, and saw his back as he disappeared into an AC tower. "Bingo" James did not find out anything about the NCOs who left, nor about the runners, but next time he saw Isaac, he would have an ace on his hand. And Isaac would never betray the runners.

**Runners? subchapter**

Lenette sighed and leaned on the arm rest of her car when traffic was backed up about a mile away from where she worked. Good thing she was just getting off or she'd have to walk to work and be late. When the traffic moved a bit she noticed there was ambulance and police lights. She could see a fire truck pulled over on the opposite side of the street. After the traffic moved a bit more she pulled onto a side street and took a longer way home and put on the news. She flopped on the couch and cracked open a coke.

_Today at 4:30 pm at the Gary's Gas Station on the corner of 6th Street and Maine 2 men were murdered and everything they had with them was stolen. A witness claimed to see two unknown runners speaking with the guys before the attack. When one of the men pulled a gun to protect himself, the runners killed them, pick-pocketed the bodies and left them there. The area was locked down and surrounded, but the criminals have not yet been found. More investigations are under way and other witnesses are to be interviewed. CEC News, this is __Kathrine Johnson._

Lenette turned off the TV and got up. _Just find a way to blame runners for everything_. She left the house and decided to pay a visit to the NN.

**Runners? Subchapter part 2**

Manuel laughed to himself as he tossed the victim's wallet up in the air and caught it. He pressed his earpiece and spoke.  
"Hola, it's Manuel." He said. A cold female voice replied.  
"Good Job. Get back to base. Do not commit any crimes, The New November are to go down for this crime and this crime only." She said. Manuel nodded in understanding.  
"Si. Understood... I don't like this, though." Manuel complained.  
"Your little friend back here seems to disagree." The cold voice replied. Manuel twitched in anger at the comment. He hated it when Celeste mentioned his elder sister.  
"I'll be back soon..." He replied. With that, he ran back to The Family's base, but not before stowing most of the victim's money from his wallet into his jacket pocket.

**The Blond One**

Burke hopped down from an alleyway staircase and landed quietly on a dumpster. Here she'd meet up with Isaac for the days work. She sat crossed legged on the dumpster and waited patiently for him to show up.

The dumpster landing was quite loud for Isaac, who was _in_ the dumpster. Isaac clambered around and banged with all his might on the dumpster, hoping Burke, who was sitting on Isaac's exit would notice.

Burke sighed an hopped off the dumpster to let Isaac out. "Ya know, for being our leader n' all, you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer. So what's your plan?"

"I was walking down the street, and some Spanish guy dressed in black beat me over the head and threw me in here," said Isaac, pathetically. "I was wondering if you would help me catch him?"

Burke giggled. "Why are they always Spanish with you? So which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?"

"I'm Isaac," said Isaac. "And he scaled the opposite wall like a runner... almost like I would- he'll be a challenge."

Isaac paused a moment, breathed and began to speak again. "I'll go to the financial district, the Morrison bank has a good view- you patrol this area, if you see him, radio me- if I see him, I'll radio you and come help you chase him- we'll get some information out of this yet.

Burke nodded, "Hold on. I don't see why you want to go after this guy so badly. Do you think he has any connection with any real enemies? There are plenty of tricksters here. The NN don't need to pick on them. We can't act like criminals, it's not worth it on something so insignificant."

"I think he's part of the family,'" said Isaac, seriously. "If we catch him, we can question him about his leader and his runner group."

"If he was part of the Family, would he be behaving like this? They weren't known until very recently, yet they may have been around just as long as we have. They seem to be very good at keeping their cover, if we just blame them for everything, we'll be just like those blaming us."

"It was like he knew I was the NN tracker- I think he knows a lot about NN- we need to find out about the family," said Isaac. "Let's just find him and corner him. We don't need to kill him or anything. Stay in this general area and look around... pretend to be just an average NN runner on a job... bait."

"You sure talk loud for a tracker. Hey guys, how've you been? I haven't encountered anyone from the New November in a while," The blond girl spoke with confidence, as if she'd seen these people everyday. "Good friend of mine told me about you," She glanced at Burke. "Knew you were a bit suspicious. But I've never seen you before, only in essence. Seems Faith set a fashion sense. I didn't like it that much, but I guess no one's interests are quite the same."

"That's Celeste," said Isaac, scared. "Since you _murdered_ Merc I've changed things- I'm not afraid to beat.... well... not afraid to send Burke up there to beat your ass!"

"You're confident for someone with no power," Cel laughed. "I'm afraid if you have to send runners to do _all_ of your work, you're not going to get very far. Coming along to hold her hand while she takes care of business is not helping."

"A friend?" Burke asked, "It might not have been Mr. Tall Dark Hispanic was it? 'Cause he seemed to be jacking someone's car. . . Didn't think that'd be your style."

Cel rolled her eyes and nodded, "It was personal business of his. Seems the teams are a bit stirred up right now, and no one can decide where to stay! The NCO are losing people quite quickly. You guys seem to be doing okay as far as your team, but people are still blaming you for everything that happens here."

"And that's not fair!" Isaac butted in. "Burke- do you have a plan?" Isaac whispered.

Burke shook her head, "What is it you want from us?"

"I was just checking on up on you guys since I happened to see you. Seeing as the dark haired one here wants me to be beat so badly, I'll have to leave you guys. Burke, it is? Nice to meet you. Now I'll let you be, but don't come after me, because I have ways of stopping you." Cel backed up a bit, but waited for a confirmation.

Isaac was fully prepared to give chase- he even wanted to; he didn't know why, but he felt like it was imperative that he caught Celeste. She had to be of some importance to him and the NN- she deserved to be shot for all the bad rep she was bringing to the NN and its runners- he hoped Burke would back him up.

Burke bit her lip, then sighed. "Isaac?" She turned to him.

Cel put a hand on her hip. "I'm waiting for you to make a decision. I guess I can wait here all day if I have to."

"F#k it" Isaac said, and he ran straight toward Celeste.

Cel pulled out a gun, she had it pointed at Isaac until he neared her enough, then smirked and turned it to Burke and shot her in the stomach.

"WHAT THE F#K, CEL?!?!?!?" Isaac yelped as he watched in horror. "I wasn't going to shoot you!!"

"Sometimes you have to listen! Don't worry, she'll live, but I'm sure she won't thank you for leaving her there while you play tag with me. Until we meet again," Cel saluted him and ran off.

Burke, who was now on her knees, looked up to see Cel leave. For a moment she thought about telling Isaac to go after her anyway, but instead she didn't speak, but flopped over and curled into the fetal position.

Isaac laid sideways on the ground in an awkward position to see if Burke's eyes were open. He inched closer to her until he was practically breathing down her neck. "Burke?" He said once, quietly. "BURKE DO YOU NEED ME TO BREATHE DOWN YOUR NECK?" Isaac yelled, not knowing the proper term- CPR. Isaac was in awe, and Burke was most likely in shock- Isaac waited for an answer.

Burke shook her head, then looked scared, she pulled herself up wit her arms and looked down the alley. Sirens could be heard in the background. Pain stopped her from getting up, "They can't find you!" Now she wished she had a phone, she could at least lend it to Isaac. She let herself lie on the cement again. "Contact Lenette, she'll get here quickly. ." She didn't know if Isaac had a way to contact her or not, but it was the best advice she could give him before talking started to get hard.

"I don't know how- but _I_ have a plan, don't worry." said Isaac, as he began working. Isaac picked Burke up by her arms and dragged her backwards, he laid her back down and cleaned up her blood with his shirt. Isaac then picked Burke up, and tossed her in the dumpster that he had been beaten and thrown in. Isaac hopped in himself and closed the lid.

The police entered the alley, the only sign they were there was a bit of blood on the ground. They started to look around. "Surround the block! They may be on the run!" One of them yelled.

Isaac lit his lighter to illuminate the dumpster. He set it down on a box and took his shirt off- he wrapped it around Burke's midsection to stop the bleeding. "Don't get out of the dumpster," he said. "I hear the blues." Isaac grabbed the curve in the inner plastic of the dumpsters lid and held it. the police couldn't find them if they can't get in the dumpster

"What's your plan?" Burke spoke very slowly and quietly so the wound wouldn't hurt more.

Some of the police could be heard right outside the dumpster, but they didn't look in. "Search the buildings! See if anyone in the complex is hiding them."

"We stay here..." said Isaac, unsure of himself. "I've got the lid held down, and my shirt should sop up the blood" With that, the lighter went out.

After an hour or two an engine could be heard just outside the dumpster. "I JUST told you guys how I don't like being called for this all the time. . ." An irritated female voice was heard.

"It's all I could think of, let's hurry," The dumpster opened up and the innocent face of Holly peeked in. "Yah,they're still here." She opened it up all the way. "Come on out of there Isaac, you look fine." Holly helped him out.

"Burke!!" Lenette covered her mouth. She got up and stood on the flat edge around the bottom of the dumpster, grabbing the girl around the waist and lifting her out. When she'd moved her to the car, she inspected the wound. Burke was still alive, but unconscious. Lenette sighed, "Let's get out of here. "Holly please sit back there with her and make sure everything's going alright. Isaac, here," She tossed him a baggy band T. "Sorry, no shirt, no shoes, no service."

**The Blond One part 2**

Jacob was taking some time to himself for a bit, for there had been no real jobs that needed doing. It was until he heard the faint sound of a gunshot that he cut his break short. This city was supposed to be clean and non-violent. When gunshots came into play, that meant someone was doing something illegal enough to be fired at. That usually meant runners. Jacob ran at a steady pace, cursing the fact that he wasn't as fast as the average runner, but later consoled himself by thinking his fighting abilities compensated well enough. After several minutes of running, Jacob could see several police cars driving away.  
"Guess they didn't find anything." Jacob said to himself, noting that the sirens on the cars weren't on anymore. After word of The Family got out, the CPF usually had some Pursuit cops come in as backup. Jacob forgot about this, and made the fatal mistake of slowing down.

Sheena had just scaled a wall and planted her feet on the building Jacob was on. She didn't even face forward when she got up, but turned around to dust herself off, for her wall scale was sloppy. Jacob was walking in the other direction, and didn't notice her. After Sheena had cleaned herself off, she turned around to see the Runner that had eluded her twice so far.  
"You!" she shouted without thinking. Jacob turned around in surprise to see his rival. Sheena paused for a moment, cursing herself for her involuntary shout. Jacob acted first. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pistol. Sheena reacted quickly and dodged the two deadly shots. She then charged at Jacob, who was about to aim the weapon right between Sheena's eyes.

Just as he was going to pull the trigger, Sheena swing kicked his hand, causing his arm to fling to the right. He kept his grip on the pistol, and used the momentum from her kick to spin around and counter with a spinning back kick, catching Sheena in her jaw. She backed away, and prepared for another attack while Jacob was recollecting himself. She ran at him again, but stopped abruptly as a _third_ adversary entered the area.

"Woah!" Manuel yelled as he eyed down the two familiar faces.  
"You!" Sheena shouted! Jacob caught a glimpse of Manuel and said the same thing.  
"Me!" Manuel said casually.  
"You're under arrest." Sheena said to Manuel.  
"Wait, aren't I under arrest?" Jacob asked.  
"You too!" Sheena said.

"Mi corizon, you are very good. But you cannot take out both of us." Manuel stated.  
"Hey, you've got some explaining to do to me too. You're a runner?" Jacob asked, surprised.  
"Si, senior. I do some parkour here or there." He said.  
"Right, you wouldn't be a member of that new runner group, would you?" Jacob asked.  
"He is!" Sheena exclaimed.  
"Ah, you caught me." Manuel replied.

"So what're you going to do?" Jacob asked Sheena. Sheena growled in annoyance. Every time she found this runner, something always came up that made her have to leave.  
"We could still fight, you know." Jacob taunted. "I only fight when I need to, and I admit I'm not the best, but I can't let myself get beat by a _female._"

Sheena knew the runner was taunting him, and Manuel laughing at the comment didn't help, but she couldn't take both of them down. With a sigh of anger, she flipped her "Third Eye" device on, caught a picture of both faces, and ran off.

"Huh, guess you scared her off." Manuel said.  
"Wait, you're that guy I met when it was raining the other day. You're a member of The Family?" Jacob asked. Manuel nodded.  
"You do realize I can't just let you go, right?" Jacob said as he aimed his pistol at Manuel. He aimed for his left shin and fired. Manuel saw it coming and dodged to his right ahead of time. The bullet missed.  
"Man, I suck with this thing." Jacob said. Manuel didn't wait to make a witty banter, though. He was long gone. Jacob then cursed himself again for being a slow runner. Manuel then gracefully leaped off of the edge of the building, rolled landed hard on the second one, rolled and stood back on his feet. He then turned around to face Jacob.  
"Consider this a warning." Manuel yelled. Jacob had no idea what he was talking about, and had no time to reply. Manuel quickly pulled his pistol from out of his jacket and shot Jacob in his right thigh.  
"_Never_ aim a weapon at me." Manuel said darkly. With that he ran off. Jacob's leg was gushing with blood, and he was forced to his knees.  
"Damn it..." He mumbled. His vision was blurring, making his vision even worse considering his condition. He quickly looked around for something, anything to help him. He noticed a large green pole on the building across from where he was. Wasting no time, he limped to the edge of the building, slowly but surely slid down the pipe at the end, and banged on the door in front of him. He was in front of Linda's apartment.

"Hello, I-- Jacob?" Lind asked as she answered the door.  
"Son of a ****... shot my..." Jacob passed out from blood loss before he could finish.

**The Blond One part 3**

as the car was driving down the street, Isaac heard a loud gunshot... then another, being a tracker, he had to go investigate. "get her home!" he yelled as he hopped out of the moving vehicle. he landed in a run.

Isaac was running quite fast, and he knew where he was going, he heard the direction of the gun noise. he ran into an alley and scaled effortlessly up the wall on the right side, tic-tacked to the left, grabbed the window sill, and leaped back across the alley into another ten foot wallscale onto a green pole which led to the roof. Isaac looked around, but couldnt see anything but small bloodstains. looked in the direction of the blood and saw more drops, coming _back_ down the pole behind him. Isaac didn't feel like climbing back down the pole, so he took the express elevator (jumping off) to the pavement. he landed hard, walked across the street, and knocked on the first door he saw.

**The Blond One part 4**

Jacob had been patched up to the best of Linda's abilities, and was now laying on her couch with barely enough energy to lift his head. He heard a hard knock on the door, and Linda strode forward to open it. Jacob noticed that she had his pistol in her hand. She opened the door and began speaking with whomever was at the door. Jacob slightly lifted his head to see his tracker Isaac.  
"Linda, don't worry, he's a..."  
Jacob passed out before he could finish the sentence.

**The Blond One part 5**

"I'm the NN tracker, I recently ambushed and heard a gunshot a few moments ago. I saw bloodstains and came to investigate"

"Fine, come in. The gunshots came from Jacob. He's been shot." Linda explained. She gestured for Isaac to come into her small house and went to the bathroom to get a wet towel to put on Jacob's head, who was at this time unconscious.

"uh oh... what happened? was the guy spanish?" inquired isaac, who didn't remember sending jacob out in the first place- "I need to keep track of my runners better"

Linda stored Jacob's pistol into her pocket.  
"I don't know who you're talking about. Jacob just knocked on my door with a bleeding leg. I patched it up to the best of my abilities, but I'm not really good at this. Is there anywhere we can take him?" She asked.

"not the hospital" isaac said immediately, "we should stop his bleeding and bring him back to the hideout."

"If we get him to the hospital, they will find out who he is. they may turn him in"

"Oh my god! what happened_" Dion asked as Isaac and Linda carried the wounded Jacob and placed him on the floor. Dion grabbed the first/aid kit, and helped patching Jacob.

isaac left the hideout.

**3 Way Encounter **

Dion was checking some Hotmails he had made through his special Firefox client. He had many hotmail accounts, mostly to stay anonymous. One for people knowing him and who he had met in real life. Some for conections to people around the world he knew, but hadn't met, or hadn't seen for a long time. And finaly, one from his time as bountyhunter. The last was mostly inactive, but today he had recived a mail.  
The target was called Kirsten Browne. She was 22, had black hair and grey eyes. She was the younger of two sisters, who had both been in the NCO, and both where born and had lived in the city. The older sister had disappeared, but was belived to still live in the city. Kirsten's adress and work-scedual however was not so hard for Dion to find, but most of the time she was either near a lot of NCO or CPFs. She even lived too close to the CPF HQ for Dion to even consider that. He at last found out, that she was getting her hair cutted tomorow. He looked at a map and found a good advantagepoint. The top of a hotel on Kirstens way home.

Isaac left jacob in lindas caring hands at the hideout, and began his journey to the top of the 17'th street apartment building. It was windy and rainy outside, exposing the city's weakness to mother nature. Isaac ran steadily across the attached roofs of the buildings next to the ledge where the top floor began. There was enough wind blowing against him to considerably slow him down. Isaac reached the edge of the build ing, took a breath, and backed up 8 steps, he counted them. Isaac waited for the best time, a lull in the wind, and then ran full speed toward the edge. Isaac leaped with all his might as the wind dies down even more, and easily cleared the gap to the lower building across the street. He stopped, looked both ways and continued to foreward. The wind picked back up and isaac struggled more, but it wouldnt stop him. Isaac crossed under a bridge, and immediately, when on the other side, aw his target; the wet, gleaming monument of wretched modernized civilization and it's naivete toward the good that runners were doing, taunting him to come nearer, so he did. Isaac ran once again with all his might toward the tall 19 story building. he was aiming for the open window, he could climb up the service elevator shaft from there and reach the top in no time. As soon as Isaac leaped effortlessly into the air (the jump wasn't even 15 feet) the wind picked back up, and the rain pelted him, throwing off his momentum in the jump. Isaac cursed in futility as he stopped dead, 5 feet away from the tower, and began to plummet to the streets below. he flailed his arms and legs uselessly as he fell for what seemed like a lifetime. the little momentum he had left had him reach the building by the time the wind caught again. he tumbled down the vertical sidewall, littered with structural pillars and intriquite ledges. no. Isaac wouldnt let this happen, He had a promise to uphold to his runners, he flailed more wildly thab before, and managed to catch a window sill with his arms and one of his legs. he took a moment to regroup and regain his strength, looked up, looked down (he had fallen about 4 floors) and began to scale the building. each handhold reach was a test of strength, and perserverance; ledges were not wider than door frames and window sills were wet and slippery. after much time, he made it to the top. having alerted at least 5 hotel visitors to his presence. He sat down the rifle that weighed him down, and waited for Dion, brushing himself off.

James' Third Eye device blinked with the name "Isaac Preston". As he looked in the direction of the blip he saw Isaac's name moved downward in a rapid speed. then suddenly the name disappeared. The camera wich had spotted him couldn't see him anylonger. James began to run in the direction of where it happened

Dion entered the hotel, and moved directly towards the elevator. The other guests didn't realy look at him. He looked like just another visitor, who was on his way to his room, to grab some dry clothes. He was alone in the elevator, and took it all the way to the top floor. He found a staircase, and ignored the sings, opened the door to the roof just as a strike of lightning sawed through the sky

Isaac turned around instinctively after he heard the door shut behind him. It was dion, thank goodness. "Your big gun is over behind me" isaac said, winded, still not rested from that accident on the way up. "It may be a little mangled... there was... an incedent."

"Ok, thank you for dragging it up here." Dion said as he picked up the gun "I think the other visitors would had looked a bit wierd at me if I walked through the lobby with this one" Dion flicked off the safety. The weapon didn't seem to have taken any damage. Another lightning stroke, and the thunder rumbled "Good thing with this thunderstorm; everybodey will just think the sound of the shot is thunder." Dion deployed the bipod, and without thinking of all the water he dropped to prone position, and looked at the streets. "but the wind! itll be a hard shot, even though its almost straight down, and not a long shot" Dion saw what he thought was his target and looked closer through the scope

James looked at the big hotel in front of him. He didn't see any dead bodies from here, and thought that if he climbed to the top of the building it would be easier to see where Isaac had landet. He jumped to the outise emergency-stairs and began to climb. At the top he saw two people he wouldn't have guessed to meet there.  
"What have we here?!"

Isaac gasped and turned around before dion had time to react. he tapped dion behind his back before putting his hands up half way. Isaac looked James in the eyes. "do I have to make a fool of you like last time?" asked isaac.

"You made a fool of me?" James said while Dion raised to stand on his feet "You might not have TOLD me anything usefull, but, however, I did manage to find your base in that AC-tower."

"oh, shit... dion" Isaac said under his breath. "James, with out that fancy piece of eyewear, you're no match for my running skills and his (he pointed to dion) gun!"

"I know enough about guns to know he can't just pick it up and shoot me right now." James answered, and turned to Dion "By the time you got the aim iv kicked it out of your hands already." "Well, seems wer two against one" Dion answered "None of you two can fight!" James said and aproached the two others.

"dion can fight, right, dion?" asked isaac "what do we do?" he then whispered.

"Dion cannot fight. He can shoot, but he cannot fight." James said. In the blink of an eye, and just as a lightning stroke Dion was lying on the ground. Two electrodes was on his wet clothes, both connected to the tazer in James' hand "And even less: he cannot fight without using his muscles"

Isaac was shocked, he decided that violence was the only course of action, so he ran at James, pulling his arm back in an awkward I'm-about-to-throw-my-first-punch-ever maneuver.

Dodging the punch was no problem for James, as it was so easy to see. The punch was thrown at the face, and James stepped a small step away from the punch, then threw a jab and a left hook, hitting Isaac perfect in the head.

Isaac collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain. he grunted, "you dont have to go so hard on me!" and in a last ditch attempt to escape, snap kicked James in the shin with as much force as he could muster.

The kick came unprepared, and it hurt, but James didn't crumble. Instead he waited for Isaac to stand, then he threw an attack-combo at Isaac again

Isaac saw this coming, and dodged with ease. He knew there was no hope in fighting, so he took off running down the angled side of the building and hopped to the other structure being built on the right side of the road. Isaac ran faster and faster until he reached the crane on the other end of the building in construction. he jogged to the top to see if james could follow.

James knew Isaac would either return to the AC tower, or try to save Dion. James wouldn't be able to get to the AC-tower first, however he could easily get Dion in jail. He posessed a heavy rifle, and would be trialed for murdering. Or maybe not, as that could make him tell about how the state had used him back in time. Anyhow, Dion was going in, and since the last runner escaped, James would make sure the security was tightened. Dion wouldn't get out any time soon. James called for a cop car, pulled the trigger of the tazer again, and draged Dions bodey into the hotel

Isaac saw what transpired back on the apartment building. he knew exactly what to do, but not when It could be done. Isaac began running toward the jail, and radioed back to the A/C tower. "linda, when jacob gets up, tell him I need his help"

**Friends At Play**

Isaac climbed over the small fence in the small alley between the two small buildings in the big section of town, the financial district. that, and about 100 meters of straight pavement ahead were seperating him from the FORN SHARD, the shining ediface of what the city had become. he was waiting for someone.

Holly finished filing papers, which she had been working on all morning, and stood up and stretched. Her eyes were a bit sore from the boring work, but she figured fresh air would do her good. She stepped outside, surprised to see a visitor.

"fancy meeting you here!" joked isaac, as he knew she worked there. "and how are we today?"

"Doing well. A little bit tired, filing is the worst job ever," Holly laughed. "Especially since you have to dress nicely to do it," She teased, looking down at her office woman apparel.

"what do you say we go out on the town?" questioned isaac, smiling smugly all the time. he was confident today.

"Where is it you would like to go? I have time now."

_"wherever fate takes us"_ isaac said under his breath "AHEM, wherever floats your boat, dear. food, drink, rooftops, dancing, anywhere!"

"Dancing sounds nice, but I can assure you this is not quite dancing attire," Holly said, shifting her collar. She could break dance, but not right now.

"well howabout we just go to the _rooftops_ *ahem* I MEAN RESTAURANT" isaac suggested, and winked

"I could hitch a ride home and get changed," Holly decided. "But sure, afterwards."

"than how about we go eat first?" asked isaac, wanting to do _something_, he hadn't seen holly in too long-a-time.

"Eat first? I thought you wanted to spend time in upper levels. I'm sorry, I'm not good with stitches," Holly laughed. "But if you decide we need no physical activity, then sure."

"alright. shall I walk you home? you live close?" Isaac asked, his smoothness running low.

"No, not really. I would apreciate it if I lived closer," Holly pulled out her phone and

speed-texted Lenette. "You can still come with me though."

"okey-dokey," said isaac, bright and upful "I've never been to your house before. why dont we just do some running near there?"

"Sure," Holly looked up at the bright blue sky. "Ohh, it's good to be outdoors after spending hours inside. I don't particularily like offices."

"I don't know the feeling, I haven't spent longer than... about 30 seconds in one."

Holly laughed, "Well, feel lucky then." She watched the black corvette pull up. "Either she's always really close, or always breaks the speed limit by far," Holly remarked.

"Hey guys," Lenette said out the rolled down window. "Jump on in, I'm in a tiny bit of a rush."

"I can tell," Holly laughed as they got in the car. It was only moments before they were getting out again at Holly's place. It was tiny, but inviting. "Bleh, home," Holly said bluntly.

"at least it's technically a house," joked isaac, reffering to an all-too well known AC tower.

"now I understand If you want me to wait outside while you change. privacy and all" at this isaac smiled.

Holly stuck her tongue out slightly. "I got more than one room, if you're assuming I'm that poor." She opened the door and stopped midway, "You can come in."

"thank you" said isaac, walking right in and making himself at home

Holly left into her bedroom momentarily, and quite quickly returned dressed in baggy cargo pants and a black t-shirt. She tied her hair back, "Much better."

"indeed, said isaac, who was in a particularly comfortable position on the couch "you look great. what do you say we elevate our way to the roof?"

Holly laughed, "Sure thing." She hadn't run in a while, but she was good at it so she should be able to keep up. "You lead the way."

"I dont know the way but I'll find a way" isaac said. he almost never came to the apartment villas, the people almost always called the authorities, and the community's guard force all took their jobs far too seriously. the two stepped into the elevator.

Holly let out a sigh, "Feels good to be off the job. I've been far too overworked lately, others keep taking sick days and I just can't replace them all."

isaac simply smiled, hoping his smoothnes had comeback and the elevator would open. it didn't, so he replied: "I dont know that feeling either" the elevator dinged and the two reached the roof

Holly laughed, "It's also not a good one."

Without looking, Isaac darted straight out of the elevator, not looking back to see if holly would follow, he hopped down from the tallest apartment building, holly's house- to a lower building, not even by 10 feet; and continued running. he got to the center, and completely at random, turned left. he jumped, the breeze flapping his soft cotton/hemp mesh shirt. he landed with a break-fall on a building 15 feet lower. Allowing Holly the chance to catch up, he stopped, andf hung upside down from a pipe.

Holly had managed to keep up quite easily, though she still skill rolled from the ten foot jumps out of habit. "Think I couldn't catch you?" She laughed when he hung on the pipe.

Isaac took a breath, "I'm just warming up" he said, breathing heavily. "just you wait until we get to the financial district. there are a few 4 lane roads to cross!"

Isaac hopped off of the pipe, and began running, looking back to beckon holly to come along. he turned right, again at random, until he reached the last building in the complex. he easily cleared the 15 foot gap between this and the next building, and lost himself in the mesh of cables and wires. Isaac caught his balance, ran straight, and then, using his instinct, suspected a parking lot indent. he took the chance for a style move and wallran a full 30 feet across the giant vegade billboard. his favourite drink. Isaac landed on the other side, and looked to the east, where little asia was located.

When Holly caught up with Isaac she let out a laugh, "Haven't done enough of this lately, I'm losing my breath!" She'd taken a lower route, speed being her focus instead of show. "Nice job though, knew you could find a route from anywhere."

"Mostly," isaac sighed. "want to keep going or have you had enough?"

"Ok, I'm not that behind!" Holly took off and lead him into a subway, taking an underground route she'd take on the odd stealth occasion.

Isaac followed, he continued right on her tail. as he trotted, he asked "where are we going now?"

Holly stopped near an exit. "I dunno. I just felt like showing you this," She laughed, "We can go wherever you want."

"Alright, said isaac, can we go to your house again? I'l take the high road, you take the low road, same as before? or shall we take a different route?"

"Sure, or we could take the old fashioned way and walk," Holly winked. "I'm joking, I'll follow you."

"walk?" isaac chuckled "once you get me running, I can't stop!" the two took the roofs back to holly's apartment, facing the large body of water separating the east and west of the city.

isaac plopped down on the edge and began to lower himself to the window where holly's apartment was.

Holly entered the house, then flopped on the couch. "I think I'm getting a bit too lazy," She laughed. "I've been doing quite a bit of sitting around." She wasn't out of breath anymore, but she didn't feel much like running.

"It's alright," replied isaac, who was obviously confined to the inner section of a drab A/C unit all day. "I wish I could run more too"

Holly laughed and sat up, "Need anything to drink? I got a bit around here... I got food too."

She couldn't stop giggling, feeling a bit impolite. Isaac didn't seem to mind, but she felt a little awkward.

"do you have tea?" asked isaac

"Yes I have tea," Holly announced, then got up to start the kettle boiling. "So, what do you think of the Holly house?"

"I like it a lot, 2 of my favourite people are in it"

"Oh yeah?" Holly shook her head. "Are all guys this vain?" She laughed.

"No, I don't mean to be vain, I was just kidding" isaac said "I'll stop"

"I was joking," Holly laughed, then poured the tea. "No worries. So how do you like your tea?"

"needs sugar, and cream... or half and half"

"Same here," Holly joined him in the living room, bearing two teas. She handed him one.

"Haven't had a tea party in a while."

"two people counts as a party?" Isaac giggled

"Sure does," Holly teased, leaning back into the couch with a sigh. "So how's life?"

"I really don't know." said isaac "It's kind of dull since I became a tracker, did you know one of my runners got taken to jail?"

"Yes I do, and I also know one of them is at Lenette's trying to recover from a bullet wound. I get to babysit her sometimes," Holly laughed a bit. "You guys have it tough right now."

"Well I'll have to get him out," said isaac, solemnly "I owe him that." he paused "so what happened with you and the NCO after the... incident?"

Holly sighed and shook her head. "I have to be extra careful now. It's pretty much blown, I'm not getting anymore running jobs. That's why I've been filing papers."

"ouch," said isaac, who would've shot himself if he were ever to be banned from running

"I'm sorry, I just thought you were friends."

"You can't be blatant with running jobs, even to friends. You don't really know who's friends anymore anyway. I trust Lenette because she tries to help us, but I don't even tell family about my job."

"I'm sorry to hear that, my only family is my uncle, and he got me into running"

"Cool to have such a family member, I was introduced to running by a guy named Shane, he's not around anymore. Interesting what it's got me into," Holly laughed a bit.

"Shane, huh?" muttered isaac "I hope he was more forgiving than my uncle... almost like he _wanted_ me to be scared. All the time"

"He might have wanted you to be scared for your own safety," Holly pointed out. "I'm sure he meant good."

"well running isn't safe, no reason to discourage your nephew, though"

"Do you really think so?" Holly smiled. "I think what he was doing was right."

"I think he just wanted to see if I'd chicken out. he _was_ always a real jokester, the more he told me I couldnt do something, the more I felt like I HAD to prove him wrong."

"I see," Holly looked to the window. "I don't really know the feeling, though. I've never been competative."

"you were pretty competative earlier today!" Isaac teased

"I wasn't, but I did enjoy keeping up," Holly laughed. "And I wanted to show you the subway because you can get everywhere in town that way"

"I know," replied isaac "I stumbled out of there the first day I met you"

"That's the truth," Holly smirked, remembering the day. "Railworker, you called yourself? You don't seem like much of one to me."

Isaac paused... "I sure tried my best"

"If I were anyone else I probably would have had you arrested," Holly giggled. "But I don't jump to conclusions, after all I've seen many murders where the wrong person was blamed."

Isaac paused. the NN had been blamed for most every murder lately. he squinted a little. "yeah, I know the feeling... I'm going to go, alright?"

"You don't have to go," Holly said, wondering if she'd offended him in some way.

And so he didn't...

**Getting Back on Your Feet**

"Come on! Thirty more squat thrusts! You're not out of this yet!" Linda yelled at Jacob. It had been a few weeks since he'd been shot in the leg by that Spanish runner, and now he was going through his rehab exercises.

"Three... two... one! Good job." Linda said to the sweat drenched Jacob.  
"Thanks for doing this." Jacob panted.  
"No problem. This gives me something to do instead of sit around listening to Jimi Hendrix and Guns N roses all day. Maybe you should get shot more often?" Was Linda's reply.

"The sad thing is, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not." Jacob said.  
"Don't worry. If you get shot, it won't be from me." She assured.

"Oh, before I forget. Isaac told me to tell you that he needed your help." Linda said. Jacob cocked an eyebrow.

"Help with what?"

"Something about Dion being captured, I think." Linda said casually.

"And you waited until NOW to tell me!?" Jacob exclaimed.

"Sorry, must've slipped my mind." Linda said in a small voice.

"Sometimes I have an urge to just toss you off this roof." Jacob said in a sarcastic bitter tone.

The two were on top of a rather large hotel. The fact that it had 70 floors made the roof a private place. A perfect place for training Runners. Jacob and Linda continued the rehabilitation training with some minor Sparring, with Linda of course, dominating Jacob. While the two were busy fighting, another person had crawled up the building.

"Huh, didn't think anybody else went here anymore." She said out loud. Jacob and Linda stopped to see who spoke.

Celeste was standing in front of both of them, with her right hand gently resting on her holstered pistol.

"Oh, wonderful." Jacob said darkly. "What do you want from us? You gonna gun us down like you did Burke?" Celeste smiled at the remark.

"I think I saw you once or twice back when I was a runner." She said. "Sorry about your friend, if I hadn't done it, your leader would've chased me down. Can't have that now, can we?"

Jacob balled his hand into a fist, but Linda rested her hand on his shoulder.  
"Jacob, no. You're still healing." She warned.

"You should listen to her, kid. Besides, you can't take me anyway." Celeste taunted. Jacob had a raging urge to assault her and beat her down on the spot, but he knew Linda was right. He wouldn't do much with an injured leg. Right as he calmed down, Linda took a step forward.  
"I'll do it for you." She said, understanding Jacob's frustration. Jacob stuttered.

"Lin--Kelly, you can't"

"Go to the hideout. I'll hold her off." Linda said. Celeste chuckled, and grabbed her pistol.  
"You runners are so naive that it's almost sad. When are you guys going to give up? How long have you been around? Look at what you've accomplished, nothing! You're wasting your time, and the soon you realize that, the easier it'll be for people The Family to live." She seethed through gritted teeth. Without warning, she fired at Linda, over and over again until hollow clicks replaced the loud booms.

"Kelly!" Jacob exclaimed. Without thinking, he grabbed his pistol and fired at Celeste, who ran off behind a small cluster of ACs for cover. While Jacob couldn't fire at her, she grabbed onto the cable wire at the corner of the building, and ziplined down it to the power pole it was attached to. She then slid down the pole and ran off at street level.

"Damn!" Jacob exclaimed.

"Oh, god. Linda!" He yelled. He crouched to his bleeding friend. Most of the bullets missed, but two got her in the stomach, one got her right kneecap, and another got her neck. The wound on her neck was dangerously close to her jugular artery; she was in trouble.

"Linda!" He yelled to her. Her eyes fluttered open, and then closed again.

"No." He whispered. Linda then coughed, spitting out a mouth full of blood.  
"NO!" He yelled. There wasn't anything he, or any other runner could do. He had to take her to a hospital. He carefully picked her up, and rushed down to street level. Once he reached the hospital, he kicked the glass door repeatedly.  
"Open up! Open up! OPEN UP DAMN IT!" He said to a nurse who was on a computer. She rushed to the injured Linda as soon as she saw the blood. Within moments, they had her on a stretcher and into a room. Jacob didn't stick around, though. Being in a hospital was risky, and he left before they could ask him any questions.

He'd done all he could, there was nothing more he could do but attend to the matter at hand. It was time to see what Isaac wanted...

**A Loss and a Gain**

When Isaac woke up, holly was long gone. she was most likely at work; at least, he hoped so, He needed to see her. Today he had planned to free Dion from prison. Isaac elevated his way out of the apartment complex down to the street. he walked briskly out the front gate without more than a "how do you do?" and continued down the street. Once out of the watchful eyesight of the overzealous guards, he scaled to the roof of a newly constructed silver building to his right, and got a better view of his target: the shard

Holly sat at the front desk of the Forn Shard's entry way. She was filling in for Jade, who was on sabatical. Holly twiddled her thumbs and pondered over meager things, but littled did she know, her fate had been decided from the moment she walked in that day.

"We know she's betrayed us," said richard, forn's right hand man in a low voice. "now listen carefully."

"yes sir" said joshua, one of the numerous peons who spent his days filing paperwork at the shard

"watch over her throughout today, that is you're only task" said richard, his deep voice nearly growling with anger "she leaves with anyone, _especially_ Isaac or any other NN runner... Kill her"

Joshua hesitated and Richard growled

"yes sir" replied joshua, quickly.

Isaac was making great time on his way to the shard. he took the quick route, as he needed to get to holly and use her connections to free dion before it was too late, the shard's private helicopter could be taken by someone else, and dion was moments away from being transfered to the maximum security section of the prison. Isaac reached the lowest building nearest the shard, and haulted. Isaac dangled himself over the ledge, let go, and fell 20 feet onto a hotel room balcony he repeated the process, falling small 10 foot gaps further and further, balcony by balcony, until he was directly above the "holiday inn" sign, not 30 feet off the pavement. he let himself fall to the roundabout.

Isaac picked himself up, dusted himself off, and walked toward the front entrance of the shard. "jacob," he said into his comms unit "are you there yet?"

"Yeah yeah, I'll be there." Jacob replied in his usual pessemistic tone. It was finally time to bust Dion out of prison, and he was going to help Isaac do it. He didn't know much about Dion, aside from the fact that he was a sniper who'd occasionally bee seen with Isaac. Still, he was NN, and that was all Jacob needed to know when to help him out of jail. Jacob was a relatively slow runner, but he made up for it with his fighting skills. Isaac is arguably the best runner of the NN, hell, he probably was. Though his skills in running were great, he wasn't much of a fighter. Jacob felt that he and Isaac would make a good team, for they would cover each other's weaknesses.

As Jacob jumped, slid, and leaped closer and closer to the meeting place, he grew slightly worried about his friend Linda who had just been gunned down by the supposed leader of some new runner faction called "The Family." He wanted to get back at her, but he knew he had to wait. Pushing the thought out of his mind , Jacob slid to a halt when he came to the end of a food store a few blocks away from the Shard. Squinting with his good eye, he could see a black and white blur which was probably Isaac. Feeling rather annoyed at Isaac's rushing him, Jacob decided to make somewhat of an entrance. Leaping to street level, he ran full speed toward Isaac in a sloppy, comical fasion, as though he were some little girl running away from a monster in a horror movie. He then stopped when he was right in front of Isaac, and threw his fist back as though he were going to attack him. He lunged his fist forward, and stopped right when it was in front of Isaac's face. Unfortunately, Jacob was standing on one foot while performing the punch, and lost his footing. Instead of mock-punching Isaac, he fell flat on his face on the pavement.

"Ugh... I'm here." Was all he was able to say.

Isaac had dove to the left when he saw jacob about to punch. he got back up, and, in a frightned voice, said "Don't scare me like that!"

"Yeah... yeah, sorry. Just felt like being stupid for no reason. I don't get many chances to freak people out like that like I used to these days." Jacob said dusting himself off.  
"So what's the plan?" He asked.

"We're going to meet Holly. Once we do, you are to follow us to the roof, understood?" Isaac said.

"Yep, don't worry I'll be a good boy. I promise." Jacob said, letting the sarcasm in his statement show on his face.

_"my runners show me no respect,"_ Isaac said under his breath as he walked inside.

"Holly!" he shouted, and holly looked up, Isaac put his arms out to hug her.

"not in here!" she said in a hushed voice. "what are you doing here?" she said in that same hushed voice, as if she knew she was caught fraternizing with the enemy, but still tried to hide it for reasons unknown.

decency probably.

Isaac knew it would take a lot of convincing to get her to fly him and jacob to the prison in the helicopter, but he had a sucessful time with her yesterday, so he began to sweet-talk her.

joshua peered over the stairs in the dark corner on the way to the second floor office, richard was with him. richard chuckled.  
"would you like me to send the guards, sir?" he asked quickly

"no." said richard, deeply "she hasn't left yet. If she is a good, loyal NCO member like the rest of us, she'll turn him away, and won't participate in his ridiculous plot. I know Isaac, however... he is hard to deny"

holly laughed aloud "ALRIGHT" she said, forgetting her worry of being on thin ice with the higher powers. "Call him in, let's go... JUST THIS ONCE!" she giggled.

Isaac pushed his pic nearer his mouth "come on, man," he said in a laughing voice, as if everything was okay. the two made their way to the elevator.

as all three of them went up in the elevator, Isaac breifed jacob as If he didn't already have a good idea of what was going on. "When we get to the roof," he said "we'll hop in the helicopter, and holly will take us where we need to go."

when they reached thee roof, they all stepped out of the elevator, and began walking to the helicopter. It was monsterously windy, and Isaac was already surveying possible jumps to be made in the event of a helicopter accident. Isaac walked up to te helipad. "alright, holly, take us to the monroe street bank rooftop adjascent to the prison. afterwards you can come back. we don't want them to miss you." holly squinted at isaac, and got in the helicopter. "It's mandatory training, flying a helicopter you know" she shouted over the roar of the blades. she took off, isaac and jacob sitting in the cabin.  
"So..." Jacob said, thinking of a conversation to start to pass the time.  
"Holly seems cool." He said, not sure of what else to say

"she sure is..." said isaac hesitantly "let me go talk to her, she looked at me funny when I told her I wanted her to go back after dropping us off." Isaac hopped up out of his seat, and fanagled his way into the co-pilot seat of the helicopter. when the helicopter landed on the roof, Isaac and holly emerged arguing.

"I can't let you go in there alone!" yelled holly.

"I Can't let you come with me!" grunted isaac "I won't have it. you're already in trouble as it is. those guards won't excercise any restraint on you when it comes time to free dion!" Isaac reasoned.

"If I show them my pass they won't even ask questions!" holly roared.

"BULL SHIT!" Screamed Isaac, "you _KNOW_ how corrupted this city is!"

"Well what's your plan, mister clueless?!?" Holly questioned.

"We'll find a way!" hollered isaac, "I'm not going to risk your life too!"

"You Don't even know the secret way out!" holly groaned fececiously "more of that MANDATORY TRAINING!"

"You can't tell us if you're CAPTURED!" Isaac shouted.  
the blades preventing the two from talking more quietly had died down, but they were still yelling over the wind, it whipped the open air, lifting up papers and other particles in it's path.

"Papers!" screamed holly "I can't Believe you could be so stupid? how did you get me to do this in the first place?!?!"

"ME?" roared Isaac "How could YOU be so stupid to want to risk your life, you..."  
with that, a distant noise was heard, and less than a second later, holly was instantly propelled 20 feet to the left, blood pouring from her right temple, partially splattering on isaac's clean face.

Isaac stood there in shock and awe. he hadn't registered what had happened yet. he simply stood there, a perfect target for any enemy sniper seeking a promotion to take out.

Jacob was idly leaning against teh chopper and let the two dish it out. He had no say in the quarrel, and decided to remain silent. After the arguement got out of hand however, he was going to intervene when Holly was shot with a sniper round. Jacob instinctively took cover behind a nearby AC unit that stood erect against the spot where the shot had come from. The CPF were hot on their trail, and they had to be ready.  
"Isaac!" Jacob yelled to his leader. Isaac stood there motionless, shock temporarily paralyzing him.  
"ISAAC GET DOWN!" Jacob yelled again. Still no response.  
"Damn it!" Jacob yelled. He quickly ran up to Isaac and pulled him down next to him behind the AC unit just as another bullet landed right where Isaac would have been.  
"Wake up, man!" He exclaimed waving his hand in front of Isaac's face. Nothing. Jacob then heard footsteps. The CPF were on their way. Jacob lodaed his pistol and spun out of his cover, seeing two standard officers aiming right at them. He acted first and blasted the first twice in the chest, and shot the other's left kneecap out.  
"Ugh, more blood." Jacob commented. "ISAAC WAKE UP!" He yelled again.  
Isaac shook his head rapidly, the gunfire waking him from his blank stare. It all came back to him quickly and he looked up at jacob who was ready for more officers to come from the was nearly in tears "She's _not_ dead" Isaac said, trying to force himself to believe she wasn't hit, and none of this had happened. the first tear trickled down as he gazed at jacob, not wanting to hear an answer, but knowing he had to.

Jacob had just shot another officer down, but one of his stray bullets nicked his left hand.  
"OW! SON OF A..." He turned to Isaac who seemed to be in denial.

"She's dead, Isaac! I don't mean to sound so harsh, but there's really no time! Either we go in and save Dion, or her sacrifice was for nothing! Now let's go, move your ass, I'll cover you!" Jacob said, reloading his pistol and firing at the arriving CPFs

Isaac grunted, keeping his tears back. Jacob was right, and although holding back emotions wasn't good for him, Isaac had to go. he ran best when he was mad anyway.  
Isaac sat on his side, planted his front foot on the corner of the air unit, and pushed off, sliding sideways. he put his arm out, which caught the ground, and rolled isaac out of his slide into a dead sprint. he picked up speed, and with that momentum, causing him to reach top speed, which he could usually sustain for around 1 minute. isaac reached the edge of the monroe street building, wallran on the adjascent billboard, and leaped into a precision landing on the prisons 100 fot high watch tower. he motioned for jacob to follow if he could.

Jacob was right behind Isaac, shooting behind him at the last few cops who were chasing him. Normally Jake was slow, bu adrenaline can change a man. He waited for Isaac to finish wallrunning the billboard and gestured him to follow. Jacob spun around, emptied his last three bullets into the last cop and turned around, stopping only to pick up a stray clip and store his pistol. One wall run and jump later, he was right next to Isaac.  
"Okay, now where to?" He asked.

Isaac dropped down into the tower. he climbed down the ladder, and began taking the underground passageway to the main prison building. Dion was being transfered as they spoke. when the two runners reached the stairs and door to the main hall, Isaac let jacob take the lead, as he was most skilled with the pistol.

Jacob walked slowly along the wall of the hallway, footsteps. Using the element of surprise to his advantage, he leaped in front of the CPF officer who jumped back in surprise but quickly retaliated by attempting to whack Jacob with his pistol. Jacob caught the blow, punched the cop in the face with his free hand, and gave the cop one good kick between the legs before wrenching the pistol from his grip. Jacob turned to Isaac.  
"You know how to use one of these?" he asked holding the stolen pistol up.

" I did once with dion... I'm not sure If It's safe though... gimme it!" Isaac held out his hand/ letting adrenaline make his descision for him.

"Here you go." Jacob said as he handed Isaac the weapon. More footsteps were heard, that could only mean Dion was near...  
"If we stand here, we'll intercept Dion... but It's anyones guess how many heavily armed guards there are!" said isaac.  
Jacob simply shrugged.  
"Well we've got two choices. Eitehr A, we go in and take those guys out by storm, or B, I tie you up here so you don't get in the way, and go rambo to save Dion myself. Either way, I win." Jacob said calmly. The footsteps grew louder, there wasn't much time.  
"Too late. Let's kick some CPF booty." Jake said as he spun around out of cover and fired upon the unsuspecting guards.  
"You gonna help or what?" Jake said as he ducked from the retaliating fire.

Isaac peeked up abpve the reception counter. the pistol was cold in his hands, begging to be fired. _I hope this works_, Isaac thought, and he came up from behind the desk and began firing the .45 in rapid sucession, the recoil suprising him, and reducing his accuracy. Isaac pointed the barrel of the gun toward the crowd of scrambling SWAT officers, diving every which way for cover, and shot some more. he must've hit one or two, because they flinched in Pain. Isaac continued pulling the trigger, unaware that the clicking noise meant that the gun was out of ammunition. A bullet whizzed within inches of his head, and he dove to the left, executing a perfect break-fall maneuver into position behind a metal  
detector

Jacob had run out of ammo and now went close range. One officer attempted to kick him, but the runner ducked and sweep kicked him. He fel flat on the ground, and Jacob finished him off with a hard stomp on his stomach. Jacob heard a sickening crack as he took cover from the continuing fire. One glance to his right told Jacob that Isaac had ditched his gun. Judging by the number of people still alive it seemed his aim could have been better.  
"Dude, I'm half blind and I shoot better than you!" Jacob yelled. He then hid behind a small support beam as a bullet flew past him.  
"Do thes guys ever run out of ammo!?" He asked as he shot down the nearest officer after reloading.

A figure emerged from the doorway where all the prison guards were coming from. he was handcuffed, and had just reached the door, as all other guards walked out in a line. one more guard was behind him. "Jacob It's dion, grab him and let's go!"

Jacob knocked out the guard behind Dion with a hard punch to the temple and dragged Dion by the handcuffs.  
"Come on buddy, let's get you out of here!" He said. After relentless struggle against guards, Jacob, Isaac, and Dion made it back to the roof of the prison.  
"We gotta get out of here. More guards are sure to come." Jacob said, slamming his last clip into his pistol.

"follow my lead!" Isaac said, already making his way to the back ledge. Isaac grabbed the zipline, but before using it, he turned back and paused; "shoot his handcuffs off!"

"Right." Jacob said. Dion held his hands high.  
"Sorry if it hurts your ears." Jacob said. With that, he pulled the trigger and the binding chains were sliced in two, giving Dion freedom to use his hands once more.  
"Okay, let's go." Jacob said, meeting Isaac at the zipline.

Isaac slid across the zipline to the other building. the rest of the day included isaac and the group going in and out of buildings, hiding from the watchful eye of the law, and the NCO pursuers. Isaac progressively becoming more and more distant. he was sad, and made no bones about letting his friends know. toward the end of the day, around 9:00, the three made it back to the A/C tower, safe and sound. Isaac stayed for only a moment, just to inquire if dion was ok. dion said yes, and Isaac disappeared into the night sky.

**No Visitors**

Manuel managed to shake the CPF off his tail, and for once he had some free time. He decided to do something productive, and remembered that his leader Celeste had recently gunned down a female runner who was with that man with the scarred face, Jacob. Manuel had seen Jacob on routes several times when he was on surveillance duty where he would closely watch the activities of the city and report anything strange back to The Family. After looking at a detailed map of the city and noticing a route the runner Jacob took, he estimated that said runner's route ended at the hospital.

What would a runner do at a hospital? Manuel had pondered this for some time. One day he decided to follow Jacob, and found out he was right about him going to the hospital. He would never enter the building, though. He would stay at the roof of the adjacent building that was about ten stories taller than the hospital. The runner seemed to be looking down through one of the windows, watching someone. Who was he watching? The answer came fairly soon. The runner Celeste shot was with Jacob at the time, perhaps the two were friends? Jacob left, and Manuel hid himself from view and waited for the runner to round a corner. After a few minutes, Manuel ran up to Jacob's spot at the edge of the building.

"Let's see... where are you?" Manuel asked. Celeste described the runner as a young female. Most of the windows were closed, but there were a few open. Most of those open windows had sick elderly people on the other side. But at the very center was a young woman with a heavy patch on her neck.  
"That must be her..." Manuel said. He'd just found out what he should do to be productive. He counted how far off the window was from the ground. She was on the seventh floor. and made his way to street level, remembering that Celeste had called the woman 'Kelly.'

"Hello, can I help you?" The receptionist asked in a kind voice.  
"Hi, I'm here to visit my cousin on the seventh floor. Her name is Kelly." Manuel lied.

The receptionist frowned at the information.  
"There's nobody by the name of Kelly on that floor." She said as she looked at the computer monitor in front of her.  
"Are you sure? She was shot, and I was told she was rushed here only a few days ago." Manuel said in a mock-worried tone.

"Ah, yes. That must be Kelly then, she was rushed in here by a man a few days ago. She hasn't woken up though, she slipped into a coma. Would you like to see her?" The receptionist asked.

Manuel nodded, knowing full well the receptionist was going to ask for his name. He couldn't tell her obviously.

"Can I have your name?" She asked.

"Yes... but can I use the restroom first, I really have to go." Manuel replied. The receptionist nodded.

"Sure, the bathroom's right behind me next to the closet." The receptionist said pointing to the door with a male stick figure that was behind her.

Manuel nodded and walked off, leaving the receptionist to deal with another family that had formed behind Manuel. He checked to make sure nobody around him was looking, and walked straight into the closet. He quickly locked the door and put on one of the large doctor coats that hung on the rack, and grabbed a clip board. With these objects he left the room and pretended to be a doctor scribbling something on his clip board with his head down so nobody would give him a second glance. He made his way to the medical facility. He leaned against the wall next to the entrance and pretended to read his clipboard as a doctor passed by to leave. Manuel then walked deeper into the room, examining the syringes filled with clear liquids. He kept searching until he found a syringe labeled "Insulin." He grabbed it, and put it n a silver platter, leaving the room.

A short elevator ride later, he was on the seventh floor, searching the different rooms. Then he found her. Quickly entering the room, Manuel quietly closed the door and locked it. Aside from the beeping of the EKG that was connected to Kelly's unconscious form, the room was silent. He then looked at the IV that was probably filled with a medicine that would help her heal. She was in bad shape. Her skin looked unnaturally pale and a few of the patches on her stomach had a pink hue to them. She must have been bleeding at some time.

"So young, so beautiful, so vulnerable." Manuel said to himself as he placed the platter on the counter next to him and grabbed the syringe of insulin. He was going to put it into her IV, hoping to put her in a critical condition, and eventually killing her. It would be one less New November on the planet and one less New November that would get in The Family's way. Just seconds before he preformed the deed, his ear piece vibrated.

"Hola, this is Manuel," he said calmly.

"Where are you?" Came the cold voice of Celeste.

"Helping The family, of course." Manuel replied. Celeste was silent for a moment.

"I'm tracking you now, why are you at the hospital?" She asked.

"I'm taking out a vulnerable member of the New November. The one you couldn't finish off." Manuel said smugly.

"No." Celeste said abruptly.

"No? Why?" Manuel asked surprised.

"Because I want to get this done with dignity." Celeste explained.  
"The last thing I want to do, is have one of my men go into a hospital, sneak in like a rat, and kill the enemy when they're not ready. Get back here, now." She finished. Manuel sighed.

"I admire your sportsmanship." He said calmly. With that, he took off his coat, and hid the insulin syringe. He left the room, the woman he was about to kill remained motionless in her deep sleep.

"What're you doing?" Said a voice in front of Manuel. It was a doctor.

"Sorry, just visiting my cousin." He replied.

"She's in a coma. We've got to take care of her, sorry but we can't have any visitors now." The doctor replied. Manuel nodded and left the hospital.

**(much later)Peaches**

It had been forever since Linda had been shot and sent to the hospital. The incident played through Jacob's mind over and over again. Death seemed to follow him wherever he went. His parents were killed right in front of him when he was a kid, and just recently that runner girl his leader Isaac liked was killed when they rescued Dion. Why couldn't this city just go back to normal?

Not a day went by where Jacob didn't ask himself that question. As he sat on the roof of the ten story building with a green pole, right across from Linda's house, he wondered what life would have been like for him if this crazy stuff hadn't happened. He couldn't imagine it. There was no stress in any scenario he thought of. He'd have a boring white-collar job with an annoying boss and that a crush on the lady at the front desk who would always brush him off. He cringed at the idea. Jacob's half blurred gazed down at the door to Linda's apartment, and a deep sigh managed to escape his mouth.

He hoped she would make it through the wounds, they looked serious. Jacob then laid flat on his back, staring up at the sun.  
"Where _are_ you?" He asked, with nobody but himself hearing him, or so he thought.  
"I don't know, where am I?" Came a voice to the left of him. Jacob jumped up in surprise, thinking for a moment that Linda had returned.

She didn't.

Standing in front of him was a runner with tan skin, a jet black pony tail, a black leather jacket with matching pants, and a red shirt.  
"Manuel?" Jacob asked in surprise.  
"Yes, or at least the last time I checked." The runner replied.

"What do you want?" Jacob asked, putting his guard up. The runner shrugged.  
"A new car, a mansion, and a playboy bunny would be nice." He said. Jacob clenched his hands into fists.

"I'm not in the mood for BS. Give me two good reasons I shouldn't capture and interrogate you right now." Jacob shot back. Manuel remained calm.

"I don't know. Something tells me I can bypass your defenses and pin you down right now if I wanted to." He said.

"I'd like to see you try!" Jacob yelled, with that he charged at Manuel, attempting to punch him square in the face. Manuel ducked, caught his extended arm, and elbowed Jacob in the stomach. He backed up clutching his stomach.

"Looks like I know what I'm talking about." Manuel said with a chuckle. Jacob wasn't done though, he leaped up in the air and surprised Manuel with a jump-kick. The attack caught Manuel in the chin and caused him to stumble backwards. Jacob took advantage of the situation and tackled the runner to the ground, giving him two sharp punches in the jaw.  
"Pinned you." He panted. Manuel struggled to get free, but to no avail. Jacob was on top of him with both his arms pinning Manuel's to the roof.

"Looks like you did..." Manuel said.  
"But there's one thing you should know. When pinning an enemy, you should make sure the arms can't reach his jacket pocket!" Manuel said confidently as he reached into his jacket to reveal a taser. The next thing Jacob remembered after that was pain. He was shocked with 10,000 volts of electricity, and Manuel, who was protected by the thick leather jacket he wore, was perfectly fine. In a matter of seconds, Manuel was able to push Jacob off.

"Until we meet again, hombre!" Manuel said happily as he ran off. Jacob was pushed back in the position he was in before Manuel got there, flat on his back facing the sky.  
"What the hell did he want?" Jacob asked himself. The Family seemed to have been getting more active lately. There were more and more articles in the news of mysterious murders. The New November was blamed for each one obviously.

Jacob got up and climbed back down to street level. He then walked up to Linda's apartment door, wondering whether or not he should knock. She was probably not home anyway. He was going to turn around and leave when he saw a light turn on through one of her few windows. Curiosity getting the better of him, he knocked. A few seconds passed by, and the door's lock clicked. Jacob stared in surprise as the door swung open and none other than Linda Browne stood before him. They were both silent for a moment. Jacob noticed that she looked paler and weaker, and even thinner. Most likely because she'd been eating through an IV during her time in the hospital. Both broke the silence at the same time by quickly embracing each other in a hug.

Jacob embraced every moment as if they were lifetimes. He wanted to feel every moment of this. He held Linda tight, just to remind himself that this was real. She was with him. He could feel hear heart beating against his chest, her relieved sigh, even the conditioner that was in he hair. They smelled like Peaches.

"I missed you." Was all he could say.

"I know." Linda replied. The two entered Linda's home and talked the day away...

**Last request**

Kirsten was the last to leave Forn enterprise that day. She had worked overtime, and now she just wanted to get home as soon as possible. She put her labtob in her bag, and took the elevator to the roof of the Enterprise building. She knew a way home that was faster than the streets, and didn't involve any long jumps, that would damage the labtob. When on the top she took a leep to the tallest nearby building, then turned right, and began to towards her home.

Isaac had dissappeared the night before. he was distraught about what happened, and had wanted to get away from it all for awhile. every time he tried to get some flow going, some good, smooth, free-flowing running, he would start thinking about holly, and stop. It just so happened that he had managed to climb to the tallest tower next to the FORN shard, and he would've continued, but he just didn't have it in him. he sat down and began moping. he hoped no one noticed him.

Kirsten jumped the third last jump in the route home, but didn't see the man on the building before she landed just next to him. "Whoa didn't see you" She said. When she saw the man's face, she realised she had seen him before. But where, and when? She stared at the guy for a few seconds, then suddenly she knew who he was. "What the! I know you! Your the NN tracker!"

Isaac was deep in his sorrow when he was interrupted. Isaac had no Idea who he was staring into the face of, but they must've been a runner of some sort. "I am..." is all he managed to squeeze out.

Kirsten didn't know what to do. She was standing face to face with probably THE worst enemie of the NCO. She knew he couldn't fight. He was unprepared. She dropped the computer, Isaac was standing right in front of her at the edge of a skyscraper, looking at her, trying to understand who she was. She found a coin in her pocket, and threw it into the air. Isaac looked at the coin as she expected, then she pushed him with all her force.

Isaac reared back as expected, and teetered on the edge. he tumbled backwards off of it, last kristen saw of his face, he had a suprised plea for mercy expression displayed.

Kirsten was shocked. "What have I done!" she thought. Most of her just wanted to cry, or throw up; "i just killed a guy". at the same time she realised, that a small small part of her thought "i beated the NN tracker! isnt that cool?" The coin landed in front of her. "Heads: I go home. Tails: I go see if hes alright" She looked at the coin. Tail.

Isaac, being athletic like he was, quickly somersaulted himself feet down. by this time, he had fallen only 20 feet. he began windmilling his arms hopelessly, reaching terminal velocity. he dared looking down, it looked twice as high when he was actually falling. to think, if he had only turned around and jumped his maximum distance, he would've been able to grab the ledge of the adjoining building of the two towers of the financial district. isaac looked back up at the floor ledges and windows rushing past him at 74 miles per hour. it was at this point he gave up hope, being too far from the building to grab anything. he wrapped his hands about his head, and curled up into a fetal position, having nearly fainted from the uncontrolled high speed flipping. suddenly, out of a burst of luck, a gust of wind pushed isaac into the wall of the other tower, and opened him up, he frantically grasped at any ledge or window sill, proving even his superior finger strength useless, he did every thing he could to slow down. he looked back down again, everything was moving too fast to see, he curled back up and right at that time, a horizontal flag-pole got him smack dab in the chest, it snapped off, along with a few of isaac's ribs. isaac instinctively nursed himeslf, falling, when all of a sudden, inch thick glass smashed under him, cutting him up, and he fell another fifteen feet onto the floor of the skyway that connected the two towers of the financial district, his limbs splintering on the hard marble floor. he layed there, he couldn't move his right arm at all, his chest was in unbearable pain, his lungs punctured partially, not allowing him to breathe well, and his left leg in a totally unrecognisable position. he glanced back up to the top. by the looks of it, he had fallen 200 feet or more. he layed his head back down and shut his eyes.

Kirsten didn't know why she was going down there. There is no way he could survive that. However, she had heard, that Isaac had survived something alike. James had seen him fall an impossible fall, but he had survived, and he had been able to run away. What do I do if hes alright? she thought. And what do I do if hes not? She grapped her phone, and called the police. If he could move, she would try to stop him from getting away, even if she had to knock him unconcious. If he couldnt move, the police could take him to the hospital, then prison.

Isaac opened his eyes to see the elevator doors open and kirsten step out, putting her phone in her pocket. he squinted when she looked at him. it was too late, she knew he was concious. isaac began squirming on the ground toward the broken side of the glass, kirsten was already upon him, she almost had her hands around his neck in a sleeper hold. "I'm not letting you take me alive" he grunted with his last bit of oxygen, and using his good arm, he pushed himself out of the skyway platform. he closed his eyes and fel off, his bodyl completely limp. certain that it was the end, isaac quickly made peace with himself, convinced he'd see holly again soon.

he landed on a window washer's scaffold 50 feet below, still alive. the scaffold rocked violently, and isaac hoped he would be tossed off, as his right arm was folded backwards underneath his body, his left leg in a worse position than it was, and his right leg was now bent in the completely opposite direction than a normal leg should. the rocking stopped. _how wonderful_ isaac thought, he had to think of a way to get away from kirsten only moving his left arm, which did not posess the strength to pull him over the scaffold railing.

Kirsten was thinking fast. Drop: about 15 meters. hanging from my hands = 13meters left. Scafolding bends. Skillroll... Do-able. She grabbed the edge, and swung down. Released. Felt. She landed, and rolled. It was a tough drop, but the scafolding took a small bit of the momentum, and the roll forced her forward, and up on her feet, instead of hard down into the metal. Isaac was righ next to her, and was almost unable to move.  
She stood 1½ meter from him, and watched him carefully. The police came, and Kirsten whistled and waved to the policemen to get up there, to get Isaac.

Isaac grunted, squirming himself closer to kirsten. as soon as she was in range, he grabbed her by the hand, and she looked down at him. he had the same desperate plea for mercy look in his eyes that he did on the roof, 250 feet above. he struggled, and was only able to eek out a whisper of these 2 words _"Kill me"_.

**Last Request pt. 2**

"either help me... or kill me" isaac grunted, barely able to talk with ribs piercing his lung. he coughed, a bit of blood came out. "killing me is... the only help I know of" with that, he let a little more blood out of his mouth.

"I can help you get away. I live only four blocks away." Kirsten said. Then she took Isaac's arm over her shoulder, wrapped her other arm around his bodey, and asked: "You allright? This might get a little bumpy... You dont by any chance know someone closer than four blocks?"

"I do," coughed isaac. he blinked a few times. "jeffi lives... across the *cough* street behind us" he erupted into a coughing fit and kirsten prepared to find jeffi. "70th floor. number 70b"

With Isaac over the shoulder and only one arm free, she swung down to the floor of the scafolding under the one they were on. The window between the scafolding floor they just where on, and the coresponding floor in the nearby building was opened and the two officers from the copcar walked out on the scafolding. Meanwhile Kirsten opened the window below, and entered the building. then she got to the elevator, and down on street level. Before the elevator was back up getting the policemen, Kirsten and Isaac had crossed the streets. They found Jeffi's, and where safe.

"what the hell is isaac doing here... and who are you and why are you dressed like a..."

"Don't comment my clothes! And Isaac needs a place to stay and recover. The cops are looking for him, and he has probably broken some ribs from that 20 stories fall, allong with an arm and both legs I think."

"TWENTY F--KING STORIES?" screamed jeffi "GET HIM TO A HOSPITAL!"

"Didn't you hear: the cops are after him! if he gets to a hospital, hell be arrested as soon as hes allright. Its just broken bones, theyll just need to grow together. Its hell'a painfull, but theres nothing else to do"

"no!" yelled jeffi "do you know what kind of trouble I can get in by letting two fugitives... especially runners in my house? I don't even let isaac in here when he's not passed out!"

"Isaac needs a place to recover. Carrying him arround will just make it worse. its a wonder hes still alive. If you do not help him while able to, then you are a part of killing him. The cops wont check here; theres too many buildings, too many floors, and too many appartments for the cops to check every single place. They know who I am, and they are probably checking my house as we speak. I would love to go home, but I can't. And Isaac defnetly can't go anywhere."

"GAH!" grunted jeffi as the two runners walked in, "take your shoes off! you'll mess up my carpet, damn it!"

Kirsten tossed isaac at the couch and took off her shoes. she then took off his. Isaac lay there, lifeless.

Jeffi was ranting "this is why I hate your kind, runners; especially isaac. He has to always mooch off of me, he can't live in the real world like a real citizen, he is always chasing that stupid 8 year old fantasy of his! can't he understand that he needs a real job, like a legal job? not some stupid, dangerous so called "career" based right out of the jackass movies?" jeffi continued "how is it possible to be so irresponsible!?!?" jeffi exclaimed as he stormed off into his room. Kirsten was still sitting in the living room, looking at isaac. his life hanging in the balance. jeffi returned. He sighed. "tell me what hapened"

"Im not sure you want to know." She said. Then she began telling it all from the beginning. That she was NCO runner, and had attacked Isaac, then helped him escape the police she herself had called to the scene.

jeffi sighed again "I can't stand your type around me. I knew it was only a matter of time until this happened. at least you're NCO, legal. I don't much mind you." jeffi paused "I'm going to go to a hotel. you and isaac have 2 days to stay in my house, then I want you gone. Isaac should be awake by then. if you two are still in my house, then I'm calling the police to take you to the hospital. although I would suggest you do that anyway." jeffi went back into his bedroom and grabbed the suitcase he had packed. he walked right out the door and didn't look back.

**Last Request pt.3**

Isaac didn't wake before the day after. Kirsten was reading a newspaper called "Daily City" As she heard Isaac woke up, she put the paper down. "Hey, how are you fealing?" Kirsten said. "Want some tea?" She walked out in the kitchen, and came back with a cup for Isaac, then poored from the tea can, already on the table.

"what day is it... were you the one who...?" was all Isaac could muster. he closed his eyes and tried moving his limbs. "AAAUUUCHH!!!!" he exclaimed, rolling his head around so he could look at them. his right arm was limp looking, his left leg looked fine, if a might swollen, and his right leg was unrecognisable as a human limb at best.

"Yes I was the one who pushed you down from a skyscraper, called the police and then chose to save you." Kirsten drank some tea, then continued "You have been passed out, I don't know when it turned into regular sleep, but it was yesterday I pushed you. Its Friday, and we are already in the news." Kirsten showed the headline "Governament Member Captured by Terrorists" "They frame you for capturing me, and say Iv been missing for 2 days, though today is my first day missing."

"damn... they always do this..." breathed isaac. "but why didn't you..."

...

"why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?"

"I realised I couldn't" Kirsten answered "I am not a killer. First I thought the world would be better without you. I thought you where the bad guy, you and the NN, and we where the good. To me you where nothing but a name. But when I first pushed you over the edge I realised what I had just done. Or what I thought I had done: kill an innocent human being. Shot you in the back. When I found you still moving I thought id leave it in the hands of the police. I didn't want the responsibillity. Then you talked, and I realised, that letting the police get you would be the same as killing you." Kirsten had tears in her eyes as she told. It was hard to tell, but it lifted to get it out.

Isaac began tearing too. he quickly wiped it away. "you should've killed me that night... I was planning on doing it myself anyway." he looked down. remembering a bit more of the events that took place. all the while on the edge of the building, he was convincing himself more and more to jump off. that's when kirsten came along. "you've caught a big fish."

"I couldn't do it, and I can't even do it now, though I have nothing to loose. I have destroyed my own life by saving you. The news call me a hostage, but I am sure the police will arrest me if they saw me. Though my life on the right side of the law is lost, im still here. Ill not let you die, even less will I kill you. You should get some rest for today, we'r leaving tonight; your freind didn't want us here. Hopefully you will be able to move arround more or less normally." Kirsten looked out of the window. "You should get to your hideout, and I should try find a place to hide myself."

"no, you have to kill me..." sighed isaac. "it is meant to be"  
There was a pause  
"do you know a girl... a girl named h... h- holly saunders?"

"Ya I do; She worked with me in the NCO, but suddenly she left, and was wanted by Forn and the CPF. We were never told what happened"

"she was... we were... together... a couple..." isaac coughed. "I was freeing... a runner from jail... I was so stupid... we argued, I.. I should'nt have even asked her to help... but we needed a helicopter... a sniper... we were arguing... and... she was taken from me." Isaac's expression and and voice darkened. "by her own team... they must've killed her... I... I..." Isaac teared up and his voice trailed off.

"You must get over it. I know it is hard, and it should be hard, but you must move on. You say she died when you tried to help your team. Well if you just kill youself, what did it help? If you die she died for nothing. You are the leader of the New November! If there is anyone who can change this city it is you. The CPF and NCO fear the NN. They want the city to stay survailanced. This war between CPF and NN will not end with your death. Many people like Holly belived the city was worth changing. I have come to belive the current system doesn't work. NN is the revolution. I want to help you, I want to help NN, but all you think of is your personal loss." Kirsten's voice was strong. Strong of belief.

"you don't understand... she was my world... she was important... to the NN... there was... a package... dion... them most important... we needed her, she was more... to the NCO than they knew... and it failed... the plan died as she did..." Isaac was in a state of half asleep ness.

"Wake up Isaac!" Kirsten waked Isaac in the middle of the night "I have called for a taxi, ill help you get to your hideout. whats the adress?" The room was cleaned up, much more clean than when Kirsten and isaac came the day before.

"I can't tell you that... drop me off on the corner of brookshire, and verril avenue. I'll go from there"

Supported by Kirsten, and with the darkness and a hood covering Isaac's face, they walked to the taxi. At the corner of brookshire, and verril avenue, Kirsten helped him out. "Are you sure you can walk without support?" Kirsten said. "If you dont trust me, then is there any way you can get someone who you DO trust to help you? im sure that leg is broken; you cant walk on that."

"I'll crawl." replied isaac. he had one good arm and that's all he needed.

Kirsten looked at Isaac. He had said that with such a force, she knew he ment it. She turned arround, and walked away, without saying goodbye.

Isaac crawled slowly home. there he rested, and through the months following, explained to each wondering NN member at least twice what happened to him, in detail.

***

6 months later, and Isaac had regenerated into the runner he once was. well, almost. He still retained his inhuman jumping distances and running speed, (crazeh russians) but his confidence was slow to return.

Isaac climbed up onto the roof of the flat warehouse. he began training by first stretching, then by doing simple martial arts movements. Isaac wasn't scared of heights, still, but he seemed to stay away from tall buildings near the shard. It was then his training was interrupted...

**Ransom**

After a long day of inactivity in the NN hideout, Jacob took a stroll out to the city, deciding to pay a visit to Linda. He took the usual runner route around the city, jumping, sliding, rolling and falling to his destination. Once he reached Linda's apartment, he noticed something incredibly different. There were tire tracks on the sidewalk, and there seemed to be signs of a fight. One look to one of her windows showed that the glass was cracked. Jacob took slow, cautious steps to the door and turned the knob. It wasn't locked. Something was wrong.

Jacob swung the door open and looked inside, it was a mess. Pictures thrown on the ground, glass shattered on the hard wood floor, wallpaper ripped off. There was a fight here, but who won?  
"Linda?" Jacob asked. No response.  
"Linda?" He asked again, still nothing. He walked deeper into the house, waiting, hoping, begging to find something that would provide him with a clue as to where Linda went, or what happened to her.

"Linda's not here." Said a voice from behind Jacob. He spun around, pistol in hand and aimed at the owner of the voice. It was that runner girl who arrested him a while back.  
"Where is she? Jacob asked." The runner, Sheena took a step back, and swing kicked Jacob's pistol out of his hand. She then fired her taser at him, paralyzing him temporarily.

Jacob fell limply to the ground, his limbs feeling as though they'd been disconnected from his mind.  
"You're not in the position to make demands, Jacob." Sheena said. She then lifted him up and pressed him against the wall with her forearm against his throat.  
"You know something about The Family. It may be very little, but you know more than we do. You're going to help us find where they're set up." Sheena said.

"What makes you think I'd do that?" Jacob spat. Sheena simply smirked, expecting the response.  
"We captured your friend Kelly... or Linda. Yes, that's right. We know who she is, and we can have her killed for what she's done. But help us, and we'll let her go."

Jacob remained silent. They caught Linda, that simple fact made his blood boil. Sheena was most likely lying about letting her go, but refusing to help her would mean that Linda would die for certain.  
"Don't worry, we won't ask you anything about your little New November faction, just help us bring down the Family." Sheena said, reading Jacob's mind. After a few painful seconds, Jacob nodded.  
"Fine..." He said through gritted teeth.  
"I'll help you."

**The Enemy of my Enemy**

Jacob sighed as he donned the armor of a standard pursuit cop. He felt like he was betraying the New November, but he constantly told himself that he wasn't. If he was successful in his mission, he'd get information on The Family, and Linda would be safe. He just needed to keep talking himself into continuing on in order to keep his focus. He was in a room by himself, with no furniture save for a bench and several lockers. He had just holstered his pistol when the door swung open, revealing the notorious Sheena Teiwaz.

"Isn't this the boy's locker room?" Jacob asked coyly. Aside from a mere twitch of her left eyebrow, Sheena showed no sign of annoyance at the comment.  
"We're about to get this operation started." She said flatly.  
"Okay, but I think it'd help just a little bit if I had some clue as to what the operation was." Jacob replied.  
"We're going to Manuel's last known location, the New Eden plaza. He was speaking with someone there, and I managed to pick up enough of their conversation to know that they're going to meet there again. our mission is to find and capture him." She explained. Jacob stretched his arms and cracked his neck.

"Sounds like a solid plan. And if we're successful, you're going to release me and Linda?" He asked.

"Yes... but if you fail, you both go to jail, and most likely executed." Sheena replied. Jacob cocked his head in surprise.  
"You'd kill me over this?" He asked.

"No, it's all up to the mayor to decide your fate if you're thrown in jail. The execution is just wishful thinking on my part." Sheena shot back. With the slightest hint of a smirk creeping up on her lips, she left the room, gesturing for Jacob to follow. The two entered a chopper which would drop them off to the plaza, and they would then take their respective vintage points. During the flight, the radio clicked on, and Jacob couldn't help but laugh as the song "They Don't Care About Us" ringed through the small room, and he silently mouthed the lyrics.

_Skin head, dead head  
Everybody gone bad  
Situation, speculation  
Everybody litigation  
Beat me, bash me  
You can never trash me  
Hit me, kick me  
You can never get me_

Some things in life they just don't wanna see  
But if Martin Luther was livin'  
He wouldn't let this be, oh no

"This Linda seems important to you." Sheena said out of the blue. Jacob hadn't expected her to talk, but showed no hostility.  
"Yeah... she is." He said, over the thumping roar of the chopper's propellers.

"Did you agree to this mission only for her?" She asked. Jacob shrugged.  
"No, this just seemed... logical." He replied. Sheena nodded her head in understanding.  
"What do you think The Family is trying to accomplish?" She asked.  
"I dunno, maybe the same thing we're trying to accomplish. I mean, we all want the city to be a safe place, but we've all got different ideas on what 'safe' really is." Jacob stated absently.

"I suppose. It's just that having an enemy that you know next to nothing about seems frustrating at times." Sheena said. Jacob chuckled.  
"You know what they say: The enemy of my enemy is my friend." He said. Sheena chuckled too. Maybe it was because what he said was true, and maybe it was because she was talking to someone she'd probably beat the living crap out of to arrest tomorrow. All the same, they had a job to do. The Chopper began its slow drop down to a nearby building's roof, as Jacob and Sheena slid down there on a rope.

"Is that where Manuel's supposed to meet his friend?" Jacob asked, pointing to the spot they had the clearest view of. Sheena nodded.  
"All we do now is wait." She said. After several painfully slow minutes, the two saw their target. A Hispanic man with a ponytail, leather jacket, black pants and a red shirt came down at that spot wit ha graceful leap from atop a small building. Manuel. A few seconds later, another person came into view. He looked to be around twenty years of age, and wore clothes similar to Manuel.

He looked to bee of Asian descent, Korean if Jacob wasn't mistaken. The two talked for a short while, and the Korean left, leaving Manuel alone, and open.

"You go in, I'll subdue him when you're done." Sheena said sternly.  
"Why me?"Jacob asked.  
"Because I don't trust you. Now hurry." She said quickly. Jacob sighed and leaped down to Manuel's level. The runner got on the defensive as soon as Jacob made his entry.  
"What is this?" He asked, eying down Jacob's pursuit cop outfit.  
"Changed sides have we?"

"It's just a temporary position." Jacob said, with that the fight got rolling. Manuel charged at Jacob, and used the momentum to preform a hard front punch aimed for Jacob's stomach. Jacob expected this and blocked the blow, but Manuel followed up with several more punches. Jacob managed to block all of them but now he was on the defensive, he needed to change the flow of the battle up. Manuel threw another punch at Jacob, which he swatted away with the back of his hand, leaving Manuel temporarily open. Jacob lifted his right leg and kicked Manuel twice in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Manuel backed away, and Jacob followed up with a spinning back kick. Manuel tried to block by lifting his arm up, but Jacob's attack had too much force in it. It hit his arm and had enough force to make Manuel twirl around and do a nearly perfect 360 spin.

Jacob was sure the battle was over, so he grabbed his tazer. Manuel, however, was very good at playing the victim, and attacked right when Jacob's confidence was it its peak. He launched himself at the runner, tackling him to the ground. He then wrestled his tazer away from him, aiming the stunning weapon at point blank range. Jacob had his right arm free, and grabbed Manuel's arm, throwing his aim with the tazer way off and causing him to miss his shot. Jacob then rolled to his left, turning the tables completely so that he was over Manuel.

Manuel still wasn't done though, he lifted his left leg up, which Jacob was on top of, and flipped the runner right over him. Jacob recovered quickly and rolled forward to his feet. As soon as he turned around, Manuel was right on top of him. Two hard hooks came in contact with Jacob's face; surprise got the better of him. Manuel attempted a third punch, but Jacob managed to duck below the punch and counter with two punches in Manuel's stomach, and a hard uppercut. While Manuel was stunned, Jacob preformed a jumping back kick and sent Manuel flying back, sprawled on the ground.

"Bastard hits hard..." Jacob mumbled under his breath as he walked up to the unconscious body of Manuel. He heard a thump behind him, and spun around to see Sheena walking up towards him.  
"Nice job." She said as she cuffed Manuel and hoisted him over her shoulder.  
"The Chopper's already here, let's go, we've got some interrogating to do."

A short chopper ride later, Sheena had Manuel in a dark interrogation room, Manuel sitting in a small chair with a large desk in front of him, which he was chained to.  
"Who is The Family? What do you guys want?" Sheena asked.  
"I will tell you nothing." Manuel spat bitterly. Sheena sighed, and asked again. Still, Manuel said nothing.  
"Are you sure you just don't want to tell us?" She asked. Manuel remained silent.  
"Okay, we'll try your method." Sheena said as she left the room.

Manuel was unsure of what she meant, until she turned on the lights of the room. She wasn't talking to him when she said they'll try "your method." She was speaking to Jacob, who was behind him, hidden in the darkness the room provided. As soon as the lights went on, Jacob kicked the back of Manuel's chair hard enough to cause him to slid forward into the desk, striking his stomach hard.

"You really should have just told us." Jacob said softly.  
"Idiot! I've been trained to withstand torture techniques. Jacob struck Manuel in the face.  
"Tell me!" He yelled.  
"I will never!" Manuel shouted back. Jacob sighed.  
"Fine, if you won't tell me, I'll just have to knock you out, take your ear piece, and do some searching to find the last conversation you had with Celeste. Then we'll triangulate her position and find The Family's base. We'll know exactly where she is!" Jacob said. Manuel sighed.

"Humph, well if that is the case... perhaps I should tell you." He said.

Jacob smiled.  
"Nah, I like my idea better."

One punch later, Manuel was out cold.

_Two hours later_

"We found them." Sheena said after several hours on a computer.  
"Great..." Jacob said in an unenthusiastic tone.  
"They'll probably have left by the time we get there, but we'll have an idea of how they set up their bases."  
"At lest that's one step forward." Jacob said. Sheena then turned and faced Jacob.  
"As promised, you're free to go." She said, she then haded him a small key.  
"Linda's in holding cell #93, on this floor. You two will be escorted out."

Jacob took the key, and with a simple "Thanks" he made it to Linda's cell, got escorted out of the police station, and back to Linda's house in no time.  
"Ugh... Look at what they did to the place..." She said, examining the damage that had been done.  
"I'll help you clean it." Jacob said.  
"Jacob, I appreciate what you did but... do you think it was right? Helping them?" Linda asked. Jacob sighed and sat down on the now destroyed couch.  
"I dunno. I mean, I didn't give them any info on the New November, and we've actually gained information on The Family. If anything, the CPF and NCO will take care of The Family before we do. I'd call that a victory." He said calmly. Linda sat down next to him.  
"I suppose you're right. The enemy of my enemy is my friend." She said.  
"I should get back to the hideout, Isaac might have come back by now. You think you'll be okay here?" Jacob said.  
"Yeah, I mean, I'll probably have to change my name, look, and home again, but I'll be able to do it. If Isaac's back, send my condolences to Holly to him for me." She said. Jacob nodded, the two hugged, and ran off into the night, toward the NN hide out. His home.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 1.5**

Isaac climbed up onto the roof of the flat warehouse. he began training by first stretching, then by doing simple martial arts movements. Isaac wasn't scared of heights, still, but he seemed to stay away from tall buildings near the shard. It was then his concentration was interrupted

**The enemy of my enemy pt. 2**

Jacob rested on the couch of the NN hideout He'd decided to rest for a bit, being that he had been rather busy lately. After a short rest, he paid a visit to Linda, who seemed a bit edgy at the time.  
"What's got you so wound up?" He asked as she paced around her new apartment. This one was almost twice as small as the old one, but she was able to hide from the CPF once again, and that was all she needed.  
"Look." She said as she handed Jacob the news paper she had clenched in her hand. The headline read "Government Agent Captured by Terrorists."  
"So?" Jacob said.  
"So?" Linda repeated.  
"Read who was captured!"

Jacob did so, and realized the problem.  
"Oh, your older sister. Kirsten." He said out loud.  
"Exactly." Linda said.  
"I'm pretty sure that she wasn't captured, this news paper exaggerates a whole lot of stuff, but something must have happened. They're going to be after her, and I have no idea where she is." She continued. Jacob simply shrugged.

"Then why not look for her?" He suggested.  
"I can't. They want me too, remember?" Linda replied. She then gave Jacob her typical 'please do this for me' look.  
"Wha... no way, I can't help, sorry." He said quickly.  
"Jacob, please, she's my sister." Linda pleaded.  
"I'm sure she can handle herself." Jacob shot back.  
"Yeah, but they've got guns and the public on their side. You and I both know how hard it is to fight that." Linda countered. With a defeated sigh, Jacob nodded.  
"Okay, if I have any free time, I'll see if I can find her."

Lina rested her hand on Jacob's shoulder.  
"Thanks a lot. We don't always see eye to eye, but she's my sister, y'know?" Linda said calmly.

"Not really. I was an only child. But I think I understand." Jacob replied. He then felt his ear piece vibrate.  
"I gotta go, Isaac's calling. Poor bastard's been through a lot the past few months." He said. With that, he left for the hideout, but Isaac wasn't there.  
"Isaac?" Jacob asked out loud, no answer. Then, as if on cue, a police siren rang. No runners were on any jobs, and the CPF must have taken care of that Family Hideout by now, and Isaac as missing. There were very few reasons a siren would go off.

"Ah crap!" Jacob exclaimed, with that, he bolted for the training grounds Isaac usually went to. Something told him Isaac was in trouble...

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 3**

the SWAT team rushed onto the rooftop where isaac was. they aimed for his head.

"the new november IS the family" whispered the squad leader "I knew it. damn terrorists"

Isaac noticed the team before they reacted to him. "HANDS UP!!" they yelled, loudly and clearly. Isaac motioned to put his hands up, but instead, dove behind the ductwork he was just vaulting back and fourth over. The blues landed 3 shots in the thin metal. it bent and clanged.

isaac peeked out the rght side to see the squad leader motion. it was deathly quiet now, and leader was advancing his troops to surround Isaac. the leader stayed in his spot in front of the air ducts, about 20 feet away. one team member went to isaac's left, and stood behind the small structure housing the stairs to the roof. about 30 or so feet away. the other went to isaac's right, next to the elevator access spot, 12 feet away.

Isaac knew a way off of the building, but the only problem was- It was on the right. Isaac was in the middle of deciding what to do, when simeltaneously, all 3 of the combatants opened fire on Isaac's concealment. It began to tear apart like tissue paper. "JACOB I NEED YOU HERE RIGHT F--KING NOW, YOU HERE ME?!?!?!?" he screamed, and stop thinking, he needed to act.

Isaac backed up to his left, crouch sprinted, and dove into a roll off the right side, into a slide on his back to the opposite end of the elevator structure that the closest officer was located. the had basically outlined him in bullets. he could see the whites of the closest mans eyes.

"DROP MAG" screamed the squad leader, and the .45 UMP magazines fell on the ground at the same time. faster than isaac could re-act, and jump down to the catwalks on the side of the bulding, the other mags were in again, and Isaac could hear the enemy's footsteps. even over his own breathing.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 4**

Sirens sounded in PK base  
it was an emergency... Cross was sitting on his desk making paper planes, when siren sounded he fell off the chair and hit his head, immediatelly a team was rushing through the office, the squad leader was passing by and Cross, laying on the ground, asked: "What's the emergency?".  
The SWAT officer replied: "I don't know, sir. The briefing will be on the truck.", "So... who's in charge of the whole OP?" asked Cross. "The boss is officer Teiwaz." he said. Rising an eyebow, Cross got up and put the chair in place. The SWAT officer continued his way to the garage.  
_Well... Sheena is on planning... it gotta be something big._ Tought Cross. He got his gear on, checked truck's destination and took off.  
After some time he arrived a rooftop with nothing on it. _What a waste of time..._ He tought. Suddenly he heard shots, he then ran to the edge of the building and saw another floor 2 stories below. "Shit" he said while throwing himself to the ground.  
Looking over the edge he saw Isaac Preston and a whole SWAT team trying to take him down. _Now, THAT is __something big. It is that new guy they put in charge when Mercury died._ He said to himself and continued: _He has only one exit and it must be... right....... NOW!_ "DROP MAG!" said the SWAT team leader.  
Isaac didn't move a bone, stood there, lost the key moment to escape.  
_What??? rest in peace boy, you lost your only way out._ Cross tought as he moved away.  
_There's no more good runners these days... they are all too old, or too lazy... noone is a real challange or a special elite courier as we called ourselves back then..._ when Cross finished that tought he heard a desperate "WE LOST HIM!" on the radio. Cross ran to the edge to see what happened and the SWAT guys shot in his direction. He threw himself back and used the radio: "It's me dammit! Agent Cross!". "CEASE FIRE" said the SWAT leaders.  
When he finally looked to see what happened, the boy was long gone.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 5**

Isaac had time to notice this lapse, and boy was it a long one, he dropped down to the catwalk, but ten feet below, and began to hesitate.

he knew where he needed to go, but it looked like a much further jump this time around. 37 foot distance. he had made it numerous times before. cleared the gap with room to spare, but lately, he wasn't feeling like the best runner anymore... he heard the footsteps again.

"shit" he said aloud, and knew that he needed to work on his landing, which had made more sound than usual. and then he took off.

the team had made it to the ledge when he began. bullets literally dissolved the gantry behind isaac as he ran, and run he did, he had to loop around the warehouse to get to the jump spot.

2 of the assailants dropped down to the walkway. they began to fire. bullets whizzed past isaac, who even when in a dead sprint, wasn't going 3000 feet per second.

Isaac got back on comms. "GET HERE NOW!! I DONT THINK I CAN MAKE THE JUMP ANYMORE!!! HEEEEELLLLP!!!!!!!!!" he was broadcasting to all his runers at this point.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 6**

Cross was already swearing on the radio about the mission then he heard a hard landing sound on a catwalk below. "Go go go go!" he said while descending using window borders and then jumping from the place he was to the same level as the SWAT team. Two officers were already trying to catch the runner, but they couldn't get a clear shot. Cross never saw a team wasting so many bullets. "I tought you were SWAT, highly trained for hitting a fly on the spot from 50 meters away with a single bullet on the magazine!?" Cross said as he got down to the catwalk.  
"Go get him!" he ordered, "Sorry, sir. We can't keep up, we are too heavy" they replied.  
"Oh come'on... ok, leave it to me.", _I'm not even getting paid for this..._ he tought as he ran over the obstacles trying to catch up with the runner.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 7**

Isaac peeked behind him. a pursuit cop was right on his tail. he gulped, looked back ahead, and contemplated stopping. just then, guns were fired, and isaac picked up speed again. he had so much omentum anyway, so much flow. bullets tore up the ground behind him, sparks flew, and through all of it, the pursuit cop was still directly behind isaac, and the crowd of ever-forming bullet holes. the SWAT team was firing from less than 15 feet away, they were on the corner of the warehouse. the SWAT units ceased fire as isaac turned the catwalk corner, and tried to catch up with him on the last stretch, the long side. the jump.

the catwalk was eaten away here at the end of the path, as always. Isaac had little time to notice anythnig else however, with a pursuer within tackling distance. Isaac could usually outrun pursuit units with no problem, however this time, he couldn't shake him. in the past 6 months had he lost his skills? how was this possible? was he no longer the best runner? was he going to live through this? all these questions would be answered in the moments ahead, he knew. Isaac tore across the pathway with blinding speed. the jump was nearing like an oncoming car. Isaac had to jump, no matter if he thought he could make it or not. the SWAT units appeared ahead on the lip of the building, and the 2 others hopped out through a window on the right. these weren't the best tactics however, because they couldn't shoot with another officer so close in the sights. they did their best to block every square inch of the platforms. Isaac got up some more speed, faster than he'd gon before, and hopped in the air. he brought his hips to face left, and angled himself sideways. he kicked the wall and got traction. he ran along the wall, over the window, and over the heads of the 2 guards, and then plopped back down, having gained tons of speed and momentum. it seemed the pursuit cop did exactly the same. the jump was nearing. Isaacs steps lengthened, to pick up any more speed than possible, and isaac has been known to reach 22.4 miles per hour in a dead sprint. he angled himself foreward for better aerodynamics, and corrected his steps to reach the edge, then... all in a blur, his last foot left the platform. it was silent now. all his brain power devoted to the 12.5 meters ahead of him. his front foot kicked with all his might foreward, and quickly yanked backward as his back foot flew foreward. his arms were flying in perfectly executed windmills around his head as if he was throwing a limitless supply of hail-mary foot ball passes. his leg reached the top of it's arc, and isaac's flexibility, as isaac's back foot started rushing foreward, and isaac started to fall. Isaac brought both arms under control and brought his feet up into a tight coil. it seemed like he had been suspended for an eternity when both his feet hit the roof of the adjoining building, and his momentum brought him foreward, he stumbled out, and stood up, looking back to see what he had just accomplished; a perfectly executed running long jump across a major thourougfare. the sound, other than his heartbeat and breathnig returned.

"I'M BACK, BABY!" he exclaimed with passion. he looked up to see what had happened to his pursuers.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 8**

Cross started to sprint in Isaac's direction, his face turned from sarcastic humor to pure concentration. He managed to get only 2 meters behind the runner, enough distance to know where to step and close enough to catch the runner on his first mistake.  
They were both running at such high speed. SWAT teams were shooting the runner almost hitting Cross, "A little forward you morons!" said Cross through the radio, trying to avoid getting shot.  
His concentration was at the limit, he was so close to the runner, yet so far... it was just annoying for him to be out-ran by a newbie.  
"Cease fire, cease fire" he said on the radio as he got closer to the runner, he could stretch his arm and almost touch the runner. _Why I didn't get my gun? or my teaser! aaah too late..._ he tought as the runner jumped through obstacles and made his path on the rooftops.  
Cross wandered where the runner could be going now, there was no place to hide without being caught the game was already won.  
The runner was going faster and faster, Cross almost couldn't keep up. They ran a whole wall over a big gap where SWAT guys were standing there. Cross made it over the gap saying "no, no, no, no, don't, don't, point that thing away!" and yet almost got shot by his own team, again.  
The runner put his head down to get more speed, Cross knew what it ment, it was time for testing his trainament.  
The runner started to correct his steps to reach the edge of the building, Cross did the same, he was not going to let this one escape, this time it was a big fish, not just some random runner.  
The runner made his last step on the very edge of the building, a little weird as he only used his lag and spun his arms in mid air. Cross was right on his tail, he jumped with his left foot, crouching a bit and using his arms to gain height, as soon as he took off Cross coiled throwing his arms and legs forward.  
In mid air, all your problems are forgotten, all your anger is gone. It's only you and the wind, the feel of freedom makes your body relax and your mind fly...  
Cross looked to the runner, flying, falling, coiling, right in front of him. The runner coiled just enough to touch the edge. Cross was confident, he was going to make it, he touched the otherside with the tip of his right foot and then slided down, holding the edge with his arms and hitting his face on the glass window.  
He felt so... out-runned, he was losing his shape. _I am not old for this, I just didn't train enough yet, I gotta keep... going... forward._ He tought to himself as he pushed himself up.  
Cross felt that, that run was worth it. That was the challenge he was looking for. He sitted on the border of the building, looking back to the jump he just made. He lost sight of the runner anyway... all he had left to do was to enjoy the moment.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 9**

Isaac jogged to a stop, If he continued ahead, he would undoubtedly run into more resistance. he tuned into the police's frequency. "checking the wires" as runners called it.

"did you see that?"  
"we'll never catch this guy"  
"he out-ran our best pursuit cop, and made it look easy!"  
"he taunted us there! smug bastard!"  
"we'll need some helicopters to surround him... bring them ahead a few blocks at strategic high points. if he passes they'll see him."

that was all Isaac heard. he was calm now;  
"if anyone, anyone at all is out there, runners, messengers, traceurs, martial artists of any type... This is my desperate plea for your assistance... I'm close to my end, and my only hope is backup."  
Isaac was broadcasting on all runner frequencies now.

Isaac backed up, hesitant on what to do next, the police were still close behind him, but closer than they thought... Isaac picked his way along the pipes and ducts on the roof outcropping in between the 2 much taller buildings at a walkers pace. he reached the corner and peeked around it. there, sitting on the edge, was the pursuit cop, who isaac had thought to have not tried the jump.

_I can see I need to top my record off by a few feet... _, isaac thought. he turned back around, and walked back across the inner-outcropping. he made it to the ledge, and hopped down to the large freeway sign. he proceeded to balance all the way across it. helicopters whirred off in the distance. miniguns spooled up, ready to fire.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 10**

Cross was lying down on the ground, looking up to the bright cloud-less sky.  
The helicopters chopped over him in the runner's direction.  
"What are you doing lying down there?" said his boss, Milton, through the radio.  
"Oh, it was you on the helicopter that just went by?" replied Cross calmly.  
"Help us! I don't know if you noticed but you were the only dumb enough agent to jump that thing.", "Respect please, I like it. And you are right, I have to keep going. I did not train all this time to stop because of a stupid mistake." said Cross getting up.  
"Location?", he says. "West from your location, he just crossed the highway!", "Yes, sir!".  
Cross ran again almost not breathing because of the impact against the window of the building.  
He went all the way down to where the runner was, the helicopters were ready to shoot, awaiting a simple order.  
"Can you fight boy?" he said, "You better be ready to be beaten because I didn't bring my tazer today". He rushed in the runner's direction, but then a shot is heard and they both throw themselves to the ground. "Cease fireeee!" Cross says through the radio. "It wasn't us." Milton replies.  
The runner was unarmed, so who could have fired that gun?  
Cross desperatedly looks for visual contact but can't see anyone. He sees a smirk in the runner's face, like if he knew who was shooting them.  
He was defence less, if the other runner wanted he would be dead already. _What now? If helis shoot, we both die. If they shoot we both die too! come'on, think, think, think... _Cross couldn't find an answer for his problem. Milton gets one of the teams ready to down from the helicopter, Cross knew it was his death sentence. After a few seconds he whispers on the radio: "Shoot me". Milton replies: "What???". "You heard me, shoot my damn left shoulder please! You know Dion never misses. And I think there might be somebody else here too".  
A sniper shoots Cross' left shoulder as requested, Cross falls on the ground just in time to confuse the runners and give enough time for the swat team to come down.  
Isaac was once again surrounded.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 11**

Isaac couldn't tell what was happening. He knew that there were 2 forces with guns, and he couldn't tell which were hostile, and which weren't. He knew that the swat team was against him, but why whoud they shoot their own man? was it the other sniper? was Isaac exposed?

Isaac didn't wait around to find out. he reared back, turned around, and took off runing in the opposite direction of the unknown sniper. the helicopter was ready to drop the troops. Isaac leaped. the helicopter was a sitting duck, isaac had no other options, he only hoped that they would fly him to the next building over trying to shake him, because as it is, it was too far for him. Isaac's hands made contact with the rigid tire on the helicopter wheel. Isaac grappled wildly, trying to keep grip, while the stunned SWAT team in the helicopter commanded the pilot to try to shake him. the pilot did as he was told, violently rocking the helicopter back and fourth. Isaac kept grip. just then, an Idea struck his head.

where isaac was, the SWAT team could not shoot him, or even aim at him. he was under the fuselage of the helicopter. isaac quickly pawed his way up from the wheel, to the opening in the body where the seats were. the SWAT members didn't notice his hand, or see him. Isaac could sense them. as soon as the pilot flipped the helicopter to the right, isaac made his move. as expected the officer saw him, and Isaac pulled himself up with his right arm, and used his left for business. Isaac wrapped his hand around the belt of the masked adversary, and tugged toward himself. this threw the man off balance, and, once again, as expected, the enemy tumbled right out of the helicopter to the ground, 350 feet below. he screamed.

the other team members reacted immediately, and pointed fire arms at isaac. isaac, having not thought hard, didn't have a very good strategy. "OPEN FIRE," yelled the one on the right. Isaac, without thinking, let go. the tracers missed.

Isaac fell again, not looking down, but up, at the helicopter, getting further and further away. Isaac's only hope was being above a building, or something padded. Isaac had fallen for seemingly forever. he turned around to see what of his fall he had left, and before he had a chance to prepare, his body, in a crawling position, was met with rooftop.

Isaac picked himself up, and dusted himself off. the backs of his forearms were bloody and scraped, and his knees were the same way. Isaac looked back upward. he had only fallen about 30 feet. Isaac ran directly ahead, he was on the very top of the building from which he had just left to cross the road and reach the other building. Isaac looked around, no sniper in sight. all of a sudden, a monsterous machinery sound was heard, building up, and then, minigun fire. Isaac darted from left to right to avoid it. he had pretty much given up on help coming at this point. Isaac finally reached the other end of the rooftop, and jumped for the next building. he balled up, and put his hands around his head. glass smashed in front of him, and he landed inside an office. the helicopter couldn't shoot him here, they would be endangering the public.

the invisible sniper fired again.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 11.5**

Dion was positioned on a tall building 2 blocks away from Isaac. He had fired a warning shot in between the SWAT troops, (the one causing cross to get himself out) and then fired against the helicopter. The bullet barely missed the rotor. Dion operated the bolt again. The chopper was not vissible anymore; it was behind a building as tall as the one Dion was on. It appeared Isaac was running away from Dions position. "Isaac! my mic is broken, if you can hear me; TURN ARROUND" Dion had tried to tell Isaac he was in the area, but he hat not heard any of the calls. Dion thought the mic was broken; he heard Isaac as clear as usually, but could not respond.  
"If he doesn't respond I got to reposition." Dion thought

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt 12**

Isaac didn't hear dion, but he couldn't use the elevators in the building. Isaac waited for the helicopter to move back down to his level, he got a few running steps, and dove at it, sliding directly through the passenger chamber. he grabbed the wheels on the way back out, and monkey-barred his way to the minigun. Isaac jostled it as best as he could, although it wasn't working. the helicopter began ascending to the rooftops, in order to be able to shoot isaac. as it went up, isaac gave up hope on breaking the machine gun, but maybe he could slow it down. Isaac kicked the bottom of the helicopter, and spun the minigun around a full 180 degrees until it clanked. it began sagging a little bit. Isaac was about 50 feet left on the building from the broken window, but the helicopter was a mere 20 feet from the fire escape. isaac lowered back down to the wheels, and swung. once he had a good swing going he let go, and flew foreward 12 feet at the fire escape. he missed by around 8 feet. it was 10 feet below that he caught the bottom rung of the fire on that floor. Isaac began scurrying the gantries like a ladder. soon enough, he reached the top fire escape floor. he jumped onto the rail behind him, the jumped out even further backwards onto the observation deck. he used his arms to climb that one. the very moment his last leg got over the top of the railing, the minigun erupted with a ten foot flare from it's top barrel. Isaac pushed off the ground and sprinted. he could see the sniper on the other building across the street, but couldn't make out who he was. Isaac kept running. the helicopter's cannon shredding the ground behind him. Isaac leaped up the crane ladder. he shimmied through the control booth onto the actual crane. Isaac ran out to the end, the helicopters machine gun was spooling up again, it had overheated. Isaacmade it to the end, and leapt off...

about 4 seconds later, he made hard contact with the ground on the building across from his, he rolled. still, he could not tell who the sniper was. he turned back on comms. "SNIPER, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, SHOOT THE BIRD DOWN!!" he screamed, and the minigun exploded some more bursts out again.

**The Enemy of my enemy pt. 13**

The helicopter was hovering high enough for Dion to see now. Dion could also clearly see Isaac in the scope. Isaac shouted, and on the comms Dion could hear Isaacs cry for help. "You are luckey im not one of them!" Dion answered, still in doubt Isaac would hear, then fired at the back tail-rotor . In one second the bullet traveled the distance between the barrel of Dion's rifle, to the helicoptor. The pilot had seen the flash from the rifle, and tried to accend, but didnt get more than a few centimeters higher up, before the rotor got hit. A lot of alarm sounds and lamps went on as the rotor got blewn to bits. The main rotor caused the helicoptor to spin, and slowly decend. The crew all tried to get out, but the pilot go hit by the bodey of the spinning helicoptor, and was thrown down on the streets, landing on a taxi waiting for the green lights.

**The Enemy of my Enemy pt. 14**

"Damn it I don't have time for this!" Jacob exclaimed. On his way to see if Isaac was in trouble, two pursuit cops headed him off. He now stood in front of two of the armor-clad runners, their tazers aimed at his chest. In one quick movement, Jacob grabbed his pistol and shot each runner once in the chest. The padding on their armor stopped it from being a fatal blow, but it knocked them back enough to throw their aim off. Jacob used this to his advantage and ran at the nearest runner. As the cop was collecting himself, Jacob grabbed his arm that was holding the tazer, and gave the pursuit cop a good kick between the legs. This disoriented him enough to loosen his grip on the tazer. Jacob snatched it out of his hand and fired it at the second runner, who was shocked with thousands of volts of electricity seconds before he pulled the trigger himself.

Jacob tossed the tazer away, and was about to leave when the second pursuit cop managed to put his arm around his neck, choking him. Jacob tried to pull the man off, but he wasn't giving up. So instead, Jacob stomped hard on the cop's foot, and bashed the back of his head into his masked face. After this, the pursuit cop was disoriented enough for Jacob to flip him over, sending the pursuit cop flipping forward and landing hard on his back.

The pursuit cop wasn't done, though. He sprang right back up after the attack.  
"Damn you're persistent." Jacob said. He was too tired to fight directly after being nearly choked to the point of unconsciousness, so he pulled an Isaac and ran. Jacob wasn't the best runner of the New November, but he knew some maneuvers to help compensate. They were on top of a small two story building during this fight, and knowing Isaac, Jacob assumed Isaac was somewhere much much higher than a mere two stories. The pursuit cop charged at Jacob. Jacob countered with a spinning swing kick that caught the pursuit cop in the face, forcing him back to the ground. Jacob took off right then, knowing full well that kick wasn't enough to keep him down.

He leaped off of the edge of the building, onto the fire escape of an adjacent building. He then continued forward to the edge of that building, looking for where else to go. A quick glance to his left showed another building with pipes running along it. Perfect. Jacob jumped to the pipe and slowly climbed up. Once he reached the top, he swore under his breath. Another pursuit cop was waiting for him. He quickly leaped forward, getting more distance between himself and the edge and waited for the enemy to make the first move. He did. The pursuit cop fired his tazer at Jacob, who saw it coming and took off just as he fired. The tazer's round hit a close by AC unit in stead, and Jacob was back on the run. He was getting to the higher buildings. Close by were the two red cranes, that would be a perfect spot for cover. Before he could make his move however, a stinging pain erupted at Jacob's hip. He grabbed the spot and immediately noticed his shirt was damp. One glance down showed he'd been shot.  
"Crap..." He mumbled. He quickly used the adrenaline rush to push the pain to the back of his mind and sprinted for the cranes. There were now two pursuit cops with loaded pistols firing at him. Things weren't looking too good. He leaped off of one building to another continuously, until he was at the building right in front of the cranes. The pursuit cops were right on him now, and he had to hurry. He was now on some construction scaffolding, with many metallic catwalks that went along the half finished structure. He ran along the thickest catwalk, but instantly stopped as a large portion of the catwalk ahead suddenly fell off. Jacob looked up and saw a chopper with a loaded mini gun. It must have shot the catwalk down. Fortunately for Jacob, the building's side was solid and sturdy enough for him to wall run on. He had to act now or the pursuit cops would be right on him. He picked up speed, charged down the pearly white wall, and leaped off when he was in mid-wall-run, timing it well enough to be within grabbing range of the chopper's legs. He swung on one leg, then jumped off to grab the other. He then swung off, landing on the large collection of cardboard boxes covered with a blue tarp. He landed safely, and was right at the cranes. The chopper was then bugging out.  
"Huh... why would it-- damn!" Jacob said as he cut himself off to see the pursuit cops make the same jump. Jacob quickly grabbed his pistol and managed to shoot down one while he was defenseless. This screwed up his flow, causing him to fall face first on the edge of the building, and bounce off, falling to his death. The other pursuit cop landed fine, and was right on Jacob's tail who ran off as soon as he took care of the first cop. Jacob made it over the fence and climbed the blood red crane. Things were getting drastic now, that pursuit cop was not going to give up, ad there was no way he could make that jump. He had to end it now. Jacob ran up along the crane's arm until he was a few feet away from the very edge.

The cop followed with caution, as the two were now on thin footing.  
"You're not gonna still try and fight me, are you? Jacob asked. The cop replied with a punch. Jacob staggered back and grabbed his nose.  
"Ugh, I guess that means you're still willing to fight." Jacob said wiping some blood away.  
"Okay, you wanna dance, let's dance."

The pursuit cop tried to punch Jacob again, but he dodged the blow and swiped the fist away. The pursuit cop followed through with more punches, and Jacob was able to block and brush them off with ease. Unfortunately, the pursuit cop was leading Jacob higher and higher up the crane, and there was little to no room to stand. This had to end now. Jacob caught the fist of the pursuit cop as he tried yet another punch, and kicked him in the stomach. The cop was sent falling down, but he grabbed Jacob, and he followed with him. Jacob managed to grab onto the thin rope at the end of the crane, saving himself from death, but the pursuit cop was grabbing onto his ankle.  
"No free rides!" Jacob said. With two hard kicks to the face, the pursuit cop was forced to let go, and fell to his death.  
After a few deep breaths, Jacob climbed back onto the crane and down to more solid ground. Now to save Isaac. Or so he thought. Off in the distance was a figure wearing a black shirt and white pants. He seemed pretty fine.  
"Oh you've got to be kidding me..." Jacob mumbled as he met up with his leader.  
"I thought you were in trouble. I went through hell to get to you! What happened?" He asked Isaac.

"you're late! I outran a pursuit cop, slid past a SWAT guy less than 15 feet away, grabbed a helicopter, outran a minigun, and then someone sniped the helicopter" Isaac replied "oh, then you stumbled along. let's go home."

Dion watched through the scope as Isaac and Jacob talked. "Now he got escorte, my job here is done" He switched the safety on on the rifle, then straped it to his back, and began to run towards the AC tower.

Dion reached the hideout just two minutes after Isaac and Jacob.

**Rehabilitation**

_Uhn... I can see a white light... I'm trying to open my eyes... wait, they are already open... that's a damn bright lamp!_  
-"He is awaken"  
-"Already?"  
-"Cross come back to real world!"  
_that voice again... oh no... not again_  
-"Boss? you here again?" said Cross trying not to stare at the lamp.  
-"Yeah, I'm here AGAIN... damnit boy! can't you stay on duty for more than a week?" said Milton upset.  
-"What do you mean?"  
-"What I mean? well... first you overtrain and pass out. Then jump and you hit your head on a concrete block you didn't see. Then the other time you break and cut youself on a $300 window with your back. And now you ask somebody to shoot you???" said Milton, he continues: "Why don't you use a helmet like everybody else?"  
-"Sheena doesn't need a helmet."  
-"So if Sheena jumps from a bridge you would jump too?"  
-"No, but I would laugh a lot."  
Milton stares at Cross with that 'you gotta be kiddin' face and takes a deep breath. "Are you OK? can you walk? is your arm moving properly?".  
-"Yeah, I guess." Cross answers sitting on the hospital bed.  
-"You got paperwork to do, be on base at 14, I'm going to lunch somewhere else, you know, hospital food is awful."  
-"Yes sir!"

a few moments later Cross is using his uniform and stretching on the side of the bed when a nurse comes to see how he is doing.  
-"hey you can't move yet!"  
-"are you sure? I think I'm OK."  
-"yes, you are."  
-"are you hitting on me?"  
-"what? no."  
-"what a shame... that would be great..."  
The nurse sheeks start to get a bit red. Cross continues:  
-"Don't worry, I don't bite... well, only if you want."  
-"I-I...I- You should really not move yet."  
-"Well... you have to talk to my Boss about it."  
-"What? He told you to leave? no no no... you will stay here, medical orders." Said the nurse grabbing a plate with food from the cart.  
-"hmm... so, I will stay here with you?"  
The nurse smiled and her sheeks got very red, she was looking for somewhere to hide when Cross walked to her and stood there very close.  
-"W-What are you doing?" she said with a very soft voice.  
-"Just wanted to look into your eyes, you know, it's not everyday you see someone with a beatyfull smile."  
The nurse dropped the plate on the table while touching Cross' lips with her's, the two hugged and kissed.  
-"You know I have a fall for nurses."  
-"And I have a fall for men in uniforms."  
-"Heavy footsteps." said Cross while jumping to the bed and covering himself with the blanket.  
A medic opens the door and comes into the room.  
-"How is this patient going? You know you were very confident taking that shot and all."  
-"Thank you sir, it's just my job."  
-"And you are doing it very well... so, it's time for lunch and you are good to go... you know, you better get yourself some real food cause this one is awful. Isn't it Mrs. Watson?" said the medic laughing. He continued:  
-"Mrs. Watson, go get something good to eat too. The mall is just a few blocks away."  
-"Thank you, I will..."  
-"Wanna go lunch with me?" said Cross to the nurse.  
-"Great idea, that way she could take care of you if you have a relapse because of your wound!" the medic incouraged. "OK, I have to check the next room, excuse me...".

The doctor left the room, Cross pulled the nurse to the bed and she fell on his arms. -"Ouch." he said when she touched his left shoulder. Cross was smiling looking at her eyes again.  
-"You are one lucky bastard." she whispered. They kissed for a small time before getting up and leaving the room, walking their way to the mall...


End file.
